U's win five-goal thriller at Pompey

5:00pm Saturday 2nd February 2013 in Sport By Jonathan Waldron

All smiles - Gavin Massey celebrates after scoring one his two goals for Colchester United at Portsmouth. Picture: WARREN PAGE All smiles - Gavin Massey celebrates after scoring one his two goals for Colchester United at Portsmouth. Picture: WARREN PAGE

Colchester United made it back to back wins in League One with a thrilling 3-2 win at Portsmouth at Fratton Park this afternoon.

Colchester took a second-minute lead through Gavin Massey, who scored from close range from Freddie Sears' low cross.

However, Portsmouth equalised in the fifth minute when Jed Wallace hooked home for a corner at the far post.

It did not take Colchester long to regain their lead, though. Sears converted from the penalty spot in the 15th minute, after the former West Ham United striker had been fouled by Pompey defender Sam Sodje in the area.

And Colchester went further ahead five minutes later when Massey's shot from the edge of the area deflected in off Portsmouth skipper Johnny Ertl.

Massey and Jabo Ibehre also went close for the U's before half-time but Portsmouth almost got back into the game just after the break when Josh Thompson almost headed into his own net.

But Portsmouth did get back in the game with 16 minutes to go through James Keene, who lashed home powerfully from close range.

Pompey pressed for an equaliser after that and Colchester were forced to defend, with the referee adding on six minutes of additional time at the end.

However, Colchester held on for a vital win in their battle against relegation.

For a full match report, pictures and reaction to Colchester's win at Fratton Park, see Monday's Daily Gazette.

Comments(20)

crazy comments says...
9:53pm Sat 2 Feb 13

Two awful teams that on this display both deserve relegation. I just had a gut feeling that Tom Eastman would be dropped and so it turned out to be. Seems to me much like Ward, that Joe Dunne has his favourites. Why sub Sears for Bean. Why not Massey who in my opinion was far to easily knocked of the ball and cant cross a ball for toffee. Am I happy tonight. A very big NO . Very dissapointed in which we should have scored at least 3 to 4 goals first half, then shut up shop and not conceeded any more. O Toole or even Kim any day for me over Bean who like last week runs around like a headless chicken much like Carlton Palmer used to do.

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down the line says...
10:06pm Sat 2 Feb 13

Well I'm delighted. 3 points, two wins on the spin...bring on Tuesday night.
Up the U's.

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crazy comments says...
10:31pm Sat 2 Feb 13

Glad you are delighted. Imagine most U's fans will be as well. I'm very dissapointed that we still have no one that can put a bl--dy ball in the back of net. You only have to watch the warm ups and see how bad we are at hitting the target. That tells me something. Massey should have got 4 goals today with the chances he had, and a goal scorer would have done that easily.Someone like Cureton would have burried the lot easily.We let their schoolboys who were playing today, just push forwards second half. Sears comes off and just Jabo in the middle up front. To me thats bad tactics. We should have pushed forwards ourselves and put them under pressure. A big improvement will be needed for Tuesday night, otherwise we could be in for a hiding.

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down the line says...
11:39pm Sat 2 Feb 13

Hopefully we have turned the corner. Yes we was struggling for goals but now that's 5 goals in 2 games so that proves that we can put the ball in the back of the night, and well done Joe Dunne for bringing in more attacking players.
Tuesday will be a very tough match but if we can show the same spirit and commitment then hopefully we can get a positive result.

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Steve86 says...
11:47pm Sat 2 Feb 13

All that matters is 2 wins on the bounce. 6 points from 2 games. Forwards scoring goals. Up the U's

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down the line says...
12:07am Sun 3 Feb 13

Steve86 wrote:
All that matters is 2 wins on the bounce. 6 points from 2 games. Forwards scoring goals. Up the U's
Well said Steve.

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Boris says...
1:03am Sun 3 Feb 13

crazy comments wrote:
Glad you are delighted. Imagine most U's fans will be as well. I'm very dissapointed that we still have no one that can put a bl--dy ball in the back of net. You only have to watch the warm ups and see how bad we are at hitting the target. That tells me something. Massey should have got 4 goals today with the chances he had, and a goal scorer would have done that easily.Someone like Cureton would have burried the lot easily.We let their schoolboys who were playing today, just push forwards second half. Sears comes off and just Jabo in the middle up front. To me thats bad tactics. We should have pushed forwards ourselves and put them under pressure. A big improvement will be needed for Tuesday night, otherwise we could be in for a hiding.
crazy, you normally write good stuff but here you say "we should have scored at least 3 to 4 goals first half". But Col U scored 3 goals in the first 20 minutes. I don't doubt that they could and should have scored more, but they held on and won the game. So criticise them as much as you like, but be careful with your arithmetic. And you're not happy with Massey, but how many goals does he have to score to make you change your mind? Save your criticism for when he fails.

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Feisty CBC says...
8:06am Sun 3 Feb 13

I think the most amazing thing was 500 U's fans making the trip to Portsmouth. Great effort.

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super waluigi says...
9:56am Sun 3 Feb 13

I really enjoyed the game.

3 goals, friendly pubs, 400-500 col u fans, 11,000 Pompey fans, sears was good, they guy from Burnley was even better, great first half, Beans determination when he came on and a w@nk3r in a white coat made a good day for me and that is what is important about football.

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BlueandWhiteBaz says...
10:52am Sun 3 Feb 13

Anyone who thinks we have turned the corner had better think on. We ran riot in the first 20 minutes in which the Portsmouth rearguard had no answer to Sears pace and produced 3 goals. Before the end of the first half we failed to convert 2 better chances and at half time we should have been 5 - 1 up and game over. However, second half Portsmouth were obviously smarting from a tough half time team talk and proceeded to take the game away from us. Leading by 2 goals we clearly haven't learnt our lessons from earlier matches and we let Portsmouth completely overrun our midfield who resorted to aimlessly kicking the ball anywhere rather than keeping possession. O'h how we need a midfield general with a calm head who can put his foot on the ball and provide accurate passing moves. In truth, during the second half, neither Ibehre nor Sears were given any decent service and I can hardly remember Sears touching the ball in the second half.

If we are to survive this season there is still much to do as on the evidence of this display a more accomplished side than Portsmouth would have overtaken our goals tally and beaten us in the second half. In the mean time it was a very welcome 3 points and an enjoyable trip to the south coast.

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Eddy D says...
3:53pm Sun 3 Feb 13

A win is a win and away from home is all the better. I'm happy that we showed enough resilience to hold on after that battering in the second half because 3-4 weeks ago we'd have lost that lead and got a hiding. Of course there are improvements needed but lets not forget: this is effectively the first game of Dunne's new squad and the first time he's been able to put a team out in his image in effect. There's no more Woody which some people couldnt wait for, no more Rose who was universally slated and Henderson and various others now gone. This is Joe's team and squad now so let's back him all the way and see where w go, I had a an excellent time on the coast today, excellent turn out for th U's and good, old fashioned game of football. Also the U's players on show today put a real shift in for the shirt today and that's been lacking during that horrendous run. There's positives in this and any win is a win. George Porter I think was genuinley exciting to watch, Sears was awesome and Jabo was immense. Bring on Tuesday.

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crazy comments says...
4:53pm Sun 3 Feb 13

BlueandWhiteBaz wrote:
Anyone who thinks we have turned the corner had better think on. We ran riot in the first 20 minutes in which the Portsmouth rearguard had no answer to Sears pace and produced 3 goals. Before the end of the first half we failed to convert 2 better chances and at half time we should have been 5 - 1 up and game over. However, second half Portsmouth were obviously smarting from a tough half time team talk and proceeded to take the game away from us. Leading by 2 goals we clearly haven't learnt our lessons from earlier matches and we let Portsmouth completely overrun our midfield who resorted to aimlessly kicking the ball anywhere rather than keeping possession. O'h how we need a midfield general with a calm head who can put his foot on the ball and provide accurate passing moves. In truth, during the second half, neither Ibehre nor Sears were given any decent service and I can hardly remember Sears touching the ball in the second half. If we are to survive this season there is still much to do as on the evidence of this display a more accomplished side than Portsmouth would have overtaken our goals tally and beaten us in the second half. In the mean time it was a very welcome 3 points and an enjoyable trip to the south coast.
Well said Blue and white Baz. At least someone agrees with me. I speak the truth to what I think and your views are exactly the same as mine. Even Joe has addmited in the Evening Star that we should have scored more. Be a different story on Tuesday im sure, as Di Canio has got his players in today for extra training in preperation for Tuesdays game. If I was Joe Dunne I would have got my players in as well and taken them over the park for shoting practice. L.O.L.

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brig 1 says...
6:58pm Sun 3 Feb 13

noted the shooting in the warm up at Doncaster It was deplorable ..things ain,t improved then. Hope to get to the match Tues. If we play as well as we did at Doncaster and get some decent shots in, we,ve a chance.

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We're not singing anymore!!! says...
10:56pm Sun 3 Feb 13

Things aren't going to turn around that quickly and suddenly we're an amazing team. The chances are will be inconsistent for the rest of the season and yes it will be nail biting, touch and go if we stay up.

But it doesn't matter how we do against the likes of Swindon, the more important results are the ones against teams around us. Therefore beating Portsmouth is a great result. Just a shame we couldn't have got something from the Scunny game.

Being negative or some of you might call it being realistic isn't going to help at the moment. Lets continue to cheer the team through to the end of what is certainly going to be a difficult season.

Well done Joe and the team.

Up the U's.

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What's The Story? says...
9:42am Mon 4 Feb 13

And there's me thinking we'd had a decent day in Portsmouth and crazy comes along and kills my good mood!

As We're Not Singing Anymore says, you can't suddenly expect a team that has lost 12 in 13 prior to the last two games to suddenly be playing like Barcelona but the point is we DID grab those three goals, we DID look impressive in the first half and we DID show steely determination to protect Walker.

After they scored their second, how many chances did they have in that last fifteen? Not many, and that's because the team worked their nuts off to protect their goal with Jabo superb in those final minutes to keep the ball away from trouble.

The last seventeen games aren't going to be about being the most aesthetically pleasing team in the division, it's about getting 20ish points to stay away from the bottom four.

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What's The Story? says...
9:42am Mon 4 Feb 13

Oh, and crazy, Eastman couldn't be dropped as he didn't start the last game.

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Surb says...
10:17am Mon 4 Feb 13

As the famous saying goes...
" A win is a win, doesn't matter how you win the main thing is that your win"

Now, you can be negative about the result against porstmouth or positive. But we have still gained 3 points from this game and we are trying our best to stay in this league. So be happy with the results and cheer on the U's.

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Boris says...
11:54am Mon 4 Feb 13

Eddy D, you are pleased that Michael Rose (and others) has gone, and I agree with you, because he was keeping out John White, a much better defender. But who scored that precious goal at Swindon in the autumn? Yes, it was Rose. Let's now do the double over the Robins.
Up the U's.

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jpis247 says...
12:16pm Mon 4 Feb 13

I thought it was a great win. Dominated the 1st half, and then Pompey came back fighting in the second (as you'd expect when you go in at half time 3-1 down!). On that note, when was the last time we scored 3 away from home?!
Massey and Sears both had good games and Jabo's hold up play in last 10 minutes won us the game. Obviously we're not gonna now be world beaters, and there's still work to do, but we won and we deserved to win, something I haven't thought for a very long time.

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Eddy D says...
7:55pm Mon 4 Feb 13

Didn't say i wanted rid of Michael Rose at all, was merely referencing his departure along with others as a sign of JD doing his own thing. Michale Rose did the best he could and I thank him, Hendo and the rest for his efforts. Whether the players out there are my personal favourites or not I will back them all if they put a shift in because the result and the team is the most important thing

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