Vincent out for six weeks

THERE were two main pluses to emerge from an otherwise disappointing night for Colchester United.

THERE were two main pluses to emerge from an otherwise disappointing night for Colchester United.

John Ward was delighted with the performance of his keeper Mark Cousins, who deserved his man-of-the-match award.

And the U’s boss also revealed that crocked winger Ashley Vincent, who had feared a long spell on the sidelines with his knee injury from Saturday’s clash against Wycombe, could be out for just six weeks.

Ward said: “Charlton are a good team and we were beaten by the better team on the night. I have put them down as promotion contenders.

“But Mark Cousins was tremendous for us. He had a lot of work to do tonight. He is developing into an extremely good goalkeeper.

“I’m very pleased for Mark but we didn’t offer him as much cover as we would have liked to prevent him from being man-of-the-match. I don’t quite like it when your goalkeeper is man-of-the-match in home matches, that smacks a little bit.”

Ward said of Vincent’s injury prognosis: “Ash has got ligament damage, which will take a minimum of six weeks. On the basis of that we are pretty pleased because there was a real scare that we were looking at more longer term. So Ash is delighted.”