Colchester United under-23 manager Wayne Brown has praised Charley Edge’s work rate and consistency following his wonder strike against Coventry City.

The talented 19-year-old netted with a fine 25-yard effort to secure the U’s a 1-1 draw against the Sky Blues, in Professional Development League Two.

Edge, who joined Colchester in August 2015 following the conclusion of his two-year scholarship at Everton, has been a regular in the club’s academy side this season.

And Brown says he has been suitably impressed by the hard-working Welsh youth international, who has been playing in a central attacking position of late having arrived at the U’s as a wide player.

Brown told the Daily Gazette: “Charley has performed well at a consistent level.

“In terms of work ethic, he covers the most ground week in, week out and he’s added to that with quality performances.

“He was sent off at Bristol City last Monday for handball on the line which was one of those things and he’s put that behind him.

“All he can do is keep putting those kind of performances in and hope that his opportunity with the first team comes along.”

Colchester’s under-23 side against Coventry featured a number of first-team players, including Alex Wynter, Kane Vincent Young and new loan signing Rekeil Pyke.

“There will be times in the season when we bring in a few personnel from the first-team manager,” said Brown.

“They need game time to keep their fitness levels up and the work ethic and desire of the players who came in was spot on and they did a very good job.

“If you look at the chances that we created, we probably came out on top.

“We didn’t really have the final product to go with it but their keeper made four or five good saves.

“It was a little bit frustrating to concede when we did.

“We had made a good start and it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to go behind.

“But the good thing about this group is that they don’t let things like that affect them.

“Coventry were very strong with a good work ethic, which we knew would be the case – they play with high energy levels and we had to make sure that we did that and more.

“The tempo of the game was probably the closest you’ll get to a first-team fixture as often in development football that can be unrealistic.”