Danny Cowley voices his frustration as Colchester play out draw with Crewe

Colchester boss Danny Cowley was left frustrated following his side’s 1-1 home draw with Crewe Alexandra.

The U’s rescued a point after substitute Kyreece Lisbie headed home Arthur Read’s corner in the 66th minute, cancelling out Josh March’s first-half opener for Alex.

Colchester enjoyed more than 65 per cent of the possession and registered seven shots on target to Crewe’s one, but could only claim a point.

Cowley said: “We’ve done a lot of things right but we haven’t got the outcome that we want and I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse, if I’m honest.

“I’m so frustrated right now. It’s 0-0, we have 66 per cent possession in the first half hour, total control but we haven’t carried enough threat.

“We were so poor in our right triangle when we switched it in the first half and didn’t have nearly enough quality, and then we concede and give ourselves a mountain to climb.

“It’s really hard to win football games when you’re chasing them. We’re actually doing it really well because we’ve had enough practice I suppose.

“You’ve got to credit the subs in the second half. The people that like me will say ‘good substitutions’ and the people that dislike me will say ‘why didn’t you start them in the first place?’”

Crewe had led from the 39th minute when March was found by Reece Hutchinson and fired low inside the near post after Colchester had surrendered possession.

But the U’s came back strongly in the second half and after Lisbie equalised, the hosts had several opportunities to win it, with Alex keeper Tom Booth denying both Jaden Williams and Josh Powell late on.

Crewe boss Lee Bell said: “We’re really pleased to come away with a point.

“We defended for large parts brilliantly and it’s a real opportunity for players to have grown.

“Lewis Billington stuck to his task absolutely brilliantly when you think about what might have happened last year. He stuck at it against a really good player [Owura Edwards] and then we just couldn’t hold on.

“The big disappointment is the way the goal comes for all of the territory we had, and it’s something we’ll have to look at. But, in the end, you take a point.

“We didn’t really get any type of foothold in the game throughout the afternoon.

“Josh took his goal really well but when we did get up there in the last 15 minutes, we needed a bit more care.

“We had good opportunities to maybe get another one but we’d have snatched a win had we done that.”