COLCHESTER United's match-winner Scott Vernon described the thriller against 10-man Northampton Town as a “must-win game.”

Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United's match-winner Scott Vernon described the thriller against 10-man Northampton Town as a “must-win game.”

Vernon headed home what proved to be the winning goal in the 58th minute, just 60 seconds after Mark Yeates had equalised to cancel out Adebayo Akinfenwa's first-half opener.

The U's then closed out the game to extend their marvellous run to just one defeat their last 11 games, and so move nearer to the top 10.

“We felt that this was a must-win game, against opposition that we felt we could get the better of,” insisted Vernon after the 2-1 victory.

“For the second successive home match, we have showed a positive response to going a goal down.

“To stand any chance of making this an exciting run-in, until the end of the season, we needed to win this one. We are thinking positive.

“We're not far off the top 10, and we're hopefully going to close in on the top six.

“We are now getting into winning positions and staying there, which is perhaps different to how it was a few months ago,” added Vernon.

The Cobblers had a man sent off in first-half injury-time, when right-back Paul Rodgers was sent off for two bookable offences. The U's made them pay after the break.

Vernon continued: “It was a slow, sloppy start from us, but I still felt we were a little unlucky to be one-down at half-time.

“Northampton getting a man sent off didn't have a massive impact to start with. They tended to sit back, which made it difficult to break them down, while they tried to hit us on the counter-attack.

“But all credit to us. We got ourselves level and then in front. I just managed to get in front of the defender to head home my goal after Kemi's (Kem Izzet's) shot had hit the bar. It was a reaction goal.”