East Men’s League

Premier B

COLCHESTER suffered a third straight defeat as they went down narrowly at St Ives.

Colchester started the game slowly as the struggled to come to terms with the fast and slippery nature of the pitch. It was Colchester though that opened the scoring. A quick break by the visitors saw Joe Rich draw a foul in the 25. Rich took his time in deciding which pass to make, and found Michael Pearce outside him on the left, Pearce rifled the ball across for Richard Sexton to deflect the ball into the goal.

Colchester’s lead did not last long as they were caught out on the break. The ball was lost by the forwards and St Ives broke quickly and eased past the Colchester defence, the St Ives man passed the ball past Jack Gardner for another forward to put the ball into the goal.

Colchester were then lucky to still be on level terms when a slack pass out of defence was intercepted, the St Ives forward took the ball round Gardner and then looked to give himself a better angle, but could only put the ball into the side board, with the goal at his mercy.

Colchester were having some joy of their own, some good work down the right by Richard Sexton forced a penalty corner, which saw Matt Brown’s effort charged down. And another move down the right saw Jack Devitt’s cross cannon off the far upright.

The home side did take the lead, when another pass out of defence was intercepted, the forward ran into the ‘D’ and unleashed his shot, which Gardner got his hand to, but couldn’t keep it out.

A snap shot from Ed Mortimer almost gave Colchester an equaliser before half-time, but the St Ives keeper made a fine save.

In the second half Colchester changed their tactics by pushing an extra man into midfield from defence and at times put the St Ives defence under real pressure, but where often just missing the final pass. Colchester had to be wary of the opponents and they were dangerous for the break and they were indebted to Jack Gardner for keeping the deficit to one goal, coming out quickly a couple of times to deny the St Ives forwards and making some smart saves.

Ellisons Solicitors man of the match was Alfie Sexton. The defeat moves Colchester into the bottom two and they will be trying to make amends when they face Wisbech Town at home next week.

Colchester Round-Up

The second XIn recorded back to back wins, with David Fletcher and Mark Prince scoring the goals to record a 2-1 win at home to Wapping 3rd XI in division 3SE. The third XI were unable to find the score sheet as they were on the wrong side of a 4-0 at home to Upminster 3rd XI in division 5SE. The result of the day was the fourth XI who hit 10 against Brentwood academy to take them top of division 8SE.