Colchester United's U23s have been beaten 3-1 by Barnsley
Richard Hall's charges travelled up to Yorkshire last Friday to take on the Championship youngsters, but they came away empty-handed after the 3-1 defeat.
In the match played at the Oakwell Training Ground, the young U’s were looking to do better than they did in the last game against the Tykes, a 4-0 home defeat, but they got off to the worst possible start by conceding a very early goal.
This came from Dylan Motley-Henry, who scored with a cool finish from close range after only two minutes. The goal gave the home team the impetus to dominate the first twenty minutes as the U’s looked for a way back into the match.
This good spell by the Tykes saw Elliot Simoes and Chris Sang denied by keeper Callum Coulter.
The home team were then stunned as the visitors struck back against the general run of the game to equalise with a goal by Michael Fernandes. He turned home a low cross by Cohen Bramall at the near post just after the half hour mark and with the U’s now more in the game, home keeper Joshua Rae was forced into a good save.
However, five minutes after getting back on level terms, the U’s were rocked as the hosts scored again though Chris Sang, who converted the chance on the back post.
As the match swung off to the other end of the field, Fernandes missed a great chance to make it 2-2 and half time arrived with the hosts still holding onto their 2-1 advantage.
The home team went close to scoring a third goal on eighty three minutes but the free kick went just wide.
They made the three points safe four minutes later though, going 3-1 ahead thanks to substitute Jack Sherlock.