Danny Cowley hails Colchester’s ‘energy and intensity’ after beating Swindon

Danny Cowley hailed his Colchester side’s “brilliant energy and intensity” after they swept aside promotion-chasing Swindon with a 3-0 League Two victory at the JobServe Community Stadium.

Swindon had to play for more than an hour with 10 men after James Ball was shown a straight red card for a 29th-minute challenge on Fin Barbrook.

Colchester took a 48th-minute lead when Arthur Read struck a deflected shot past Connor Ripley from the edge of the area, from Owura Edwards’ pass.

It was 2-0 – six minutes later – when Will Goodwin sent a downward header in at the far post before Harry Anderson sealed Colchester’s victory in the 69th minute, squeezing a shot past Ripley.

U’s boss Cowley said: “I thought it was a really good performance from us. We had a brilliant energy and intensity about us in the opening 25 minutes.

“We totally dominated the game and created chance after chance and did everything but score.

“We got into some really good areas. We put a lot of stress on them and forced them to maybe make the mistake and get caught up in the emotion and get the sending off.

“It probably made it hard for us really and our worst passage in the game was probably 25-45 (minutes) even though we had a lot of the ball.

“But I thought in the second half, the boys were excellent. We ran so hard for each other and created some really good chances.

“We played with such a positive energy and there were so many good performances.”

Swindon assistant manager Marcus Bignot, who undertook the post-match media duties after boss Ian Holloway was sent off in the 83rd minute for something said to the fourth official, admitted it was a miserable night for the visitors.

Bignot said: “It was a really disappointing night, result wise.

“But we’ve got some good senior players in that dressing room and even though tonight is hugely disappointing, I’m sure they’re going to bounce back.

“Goals win games and to concede those two early goals, I think everyone would agree it was a long road back then.

“Because of the reward at the end of this, a win would have put us second.

“There was a lot of expectation and hope and belief going into it, so that’s probably added onto the result.

“We’ve got three big cup finals and I don’t think there’s much room for error now.

“Three wins gets you 83 points – I’m not Mystic Meg but I think that could be enough to get automatic, so that will be our objective.

“Tomorrow is a big day – the top four play each other and we don’t know how that’s going to play out.”