Colchester United fought back from 3-1 down, but couldn't quite find the winner, in a breathless ninety minutes against Notts County on Saturday afternoon.

It looked like things might go all their way early on, when the U’s broke the deadlock after just eight minutes, in a nicely worked move down the right.

Mandron set the ball out to Senior and he smuggled the ball between two players and into the path of Szmodics, who lifted it high past Fitzsimon’s to break the deadlock.

But they were in front for just eight minutes, as a County corner eluded everybody until it found Stead at the far post, who bundled home.

And the visitors got in front themselves on 18 minutes, when Kellett did well to get the ball into the box and it fell for Jones to rifle home and make it 2-1.

The U’s almost made it 2-2 on 26 minutes, when some great work by Mandron got them into the area and it was only Barclay’s block that denied Nouble the equaliser.

And it got worse for the U’s on 31 minutes. Dennis managed to win the ball and wriggled past two to drill home and extend the Magpies advantage.

The U’s had a chance not long after the third, with Senior standing up a cross to Lapslie, but he couldn’t direct his header on target.

They did get one back on the stroke of half time, though, as County failed to clear the ball and it was smashed onto the shins of Mandron and into the back of the net.

The U’s started the second half full of energy and thought they were level nine minutes after the restart, but Prosser was flagged offside as he headed home a flick on.

The U’s were presented with a chance to get level with a quarter of the game to go when Senior was tripped in the box and, despite a long delay, Pell kept his calm to slot home the penalty.

They made their two changes later in the game, as they looked to unlock the County door, with Mandron and Senior being replaced by Norris and Gondoh.

But they couldn’t find that crucial seventh goal of the game and each side took a point each after an entertaining encounter.