Colchester United v Crawley Town preview: Reds hunt for first away points of the season at U's

Crawley Town go in search of back-to-back wins for the first time since April on Saturday with an away trip to Colchester United.
Action from last season's clash between Crawley Town and Colchester United at The People's Pension Stadium. Picture by Jamie Evans/UK Sports Images LtdAction from last season's clash between Crawley Town and Colchester United at The People's Pension Stadium. Picture by Jamie Evans/UK Sports Images Ltd
Action from last season's clash between Crawley Town and Colchester United at The People's Pension Stadium. Picture by Jamie Evans/UK Sports Images Ltd

Both teams will be going for firsts this season, with Colchester looking for their first home win, while Crawley look to take three points on the road for the first time.

It hasn’t been the start to the season Crawley would have hoped for, but last weekend's dramatic 2-1 victory over Carlisle put smiles back on people’s faces and the Reds will be hoping to use this momentum to really get their season going.

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It was a good display from the Reds, as they showed great character to bounce back from conceding in the 84th minute to win the game thanks to Nick Tsaroulla’s fantastic strike.

With injuries still being a nightmare for Crawley, Joel Lynch stepped in for the first time competitively at centre back and looked extremely strong alongside Tom Dallisonk.

The return of Tom Nichols has also been a big boost to the Reds in the last two weeks, getting 75 minutes and a goal under his belt, as he edges his way back to full fitness.

Looking ahead to the game in Essex, Crawley will be hoping to have some more players back from injury, particularly in central defence as Lynch and Dallison were the only two fit to play last weekend.

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As for the team it’s all about picking up some points on the road for the first time this season, and with performances similar to the last two games they’ll certainly have a good chance of it.

But Colchester are a good side themselves and recruited very well in the summer bringing in the likes of Freddie Sears, Alan Judge, Luke Hannant and Armando Dobra.

Perhaps most notably for the U’s fans would be Sears, who returned to the club, having been there from February 2012 until January 2015.

In that time Sears racked up 36 goals in 109 appearances becoming a fans favourite, before securing a move to Ipswich.

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Now he’s back at Colchester, with a few players also making the move from Ipswich to Colchester in the summer, and Sears has started the season relatively well with three goals in nine games this season.

One of those players who made the move from Ipswich to Colchester is Luke Chambers who’ll be unavailable against Crawley, due to him getting sent off in U’s last game against Barrow.

Colchester did run out 3-2 winners in that one in what was an impressive away performance.

But they can’t seem to replicate that at home with a 1-1 draw with Mansfield and a 1-0 defeat to Northampton being their home league results so far.

They’ll be hoping to pick up their first home win of the season, just as Crawley are looking for their first away win of the season.

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