THE atmosphere at Layer Road has been great all season, and it was a big help again today. There's still a long way to go but we have a chance of making the play-offs.

By Carl Marston

THE atmosphere at Layer Road has been great all season, and it was a big help again today. There's still a long way to go but we have a chance of making the play-offs. I don't know what would happen if we managed to get promoted. I suppose that we would have to ground-share. Ipswich Town are our closest neighbours but goodness knows what would happen. That's still a long way off.”

Colchester United skipper Karl Duguid

IT was an excellent win against a very, very good Sunderland team. They put us under pressure for the first 15 minutes of the second-half and they got their equaliser. But I thought it was a great advert for Championship football because both sides went for the winner. It was often two versus two at the back. Fortunately, we were the ones who managed to take our chances.

My players never know when they're beaten. We have to learn to play in these big games. I thought we were a bit uptight today but in the end our character saw us through. I put Jamie (Guy) on for some fresh legs and he was a real handful. He helped us get the penalty that sealed our win. Wayne (Brown) has been out there all the time, leading the team at the back and he got the bonus of his first goal of the season. He attacked the ball well. Richard Garcia now has seven goals for the season, which I think is a fair haul for a wide player. Some people say that seven isn't many but that's because of how many our two strikers gave got between them! (41).

Sunderland are up there on merit. They are a good footballing side. But we now have 69 points and we want to get to 75 in our last two matches. Then we'll see where we end up.”

Colchester manager Geraint Williams

I DON'T think that we did enough to win, but at 1-1 we had a chance of getting something out of the game. We had a few half-chances. We were always going to lose at some point. Our run had to end at some time, and the important thing is that our destiny is still in our own hands. We've played a lot better this season, but I couldn't fault my players for their effort. Other teams would have settled for a draw today and shut up shop, but we wanted to win.”

Sunderland manager Roy Keane