Colwyn Bay 0 Colchester United 5

Mikael Mandron was among the goals again, as free-scoring Colchester United enjoyed another goal-feast in their third pre-season friendly of the summer, a 5-0 win away at Colwyn Bay in north Wales on Friday evening.

Mandron had netted the fourth in a 4-1 win at Maldon & Tiptree the previous weekend, and also bagged a brace in the midweek 5-0 success at National League hosts Braintree Town.

And the Frenchman boosted his tally to five goals from three outings with another brace in the victory at Colwyn Bay, in a game that was delayed for half-an-hour because of traffic congestion.

Mandron broke the deadlock inside two minutes, sweeping home from Harry Pell’s delivery, and midfielder Tom Lapslie then burst through the middle to net an impressive second on the 20-minute mark.

A woeful back pass enabled the U’s to add a third before the half-hour mark, Mandron capitalising to prod home on 28 minutes.

With the exception of Tom Eastman, who started both halves, the U’s fielded a completely different starting line-up for the second period.

Aaron Collins, one of the U’s summer recruits, continued his good start to life in a Colchester shirt by netting the fourth goal.

Wolves loanee Collins, who had set up the first two goals and scored the third from the penalty spot in the win at Braintree, turned to fire home a delightful right-footed shot from the edge of the box in the 72nd minute.

Frank Nouble, scorer of the opening goal at Cressing Road, squeezed home the U’s fifth at Llanelian Road from a narrow angle in the last minute.

It was good to see Pell back in action after the tall midfielder, signed from Cheltenham at the start of the summer, had tweaked his hamstring at Maldon, which caused him to miss the Braintree fixture.

Meanwhile, ‘JobServe’ will be sponsoring both the U’s home and away shirts for the 2018-19 season.

U’s starting line-ups

First-half: D Barnes, Jackson, Eastman, James, Kent, Dickenson, Lapslie, Comley, Pell, Mandron, Szmodics.

Second-half: Gilmartin, Kent, Eastman, A Barnes, Clampin, Vincent-Young, Wright, Gondoh, Collins, Nouble, Ogedi-Uzokwe.