Colchester United beat ten-man Scunthorpe United

A brace from the outstanding Noah Chilvers and Owura Edwards' strike gave the U's victory at Glanford Park, after Joe Nuttall had given the hosts an early lead.

Colchester had played against ten men for around an hour after Scunthorpe defender Luke Matheson was sent off in the first half for two bookable offences.

And the U's produced a strong second-half display against their ten-man opponents to claim back-to-back wins in the league for the first time since last April.

U's interim head coach Brown said: "Scunny are obviously struggling at the moment.

"They find themselves bottom of the league and desperate for points and it's never an easy place to come, regardless of where they are and what form they're in.

"We knew that beforehand and we knew it was going to be a tough game but we didn't really help ourselves at times, in the first half.

"I thought we were reasonably flat at times; that said, we had the better of the chances in the opening ten minutes or so of the game and we should really have been one or two up.

"Then they got the goal and it was then a mixture of emotions for the rest of the game, with the sending off and then the way they went about their shape trying to be solid and frustrate us, which they did up until the 50th or 55th minute.

"We made a couple of changes and I think that helped but some of the stuff that we've worked on in the week about using the width and getting their back four spread and then sliding balls through, I thought that was exceptional.

"You talk about character and you talk about belief; they've had to dig themselves out of a hole today having not really performed as well as they should have done, in the first half.

"They've shown the belief and character and enthusiasm and a great bit of enthusiasm by Noah to change the game."

Colchester went in at the break trailing to Nuttall's strike.

But Matheson's dismissal proved vital in the second half and the introduction of John Akinde and Tyreik Wright off the bench soon after half-time helped change the game in the U's favour.

"The first booking was possibly a bit of a harsh one," said Brown.

"The second one you can't really complain about.

"There was contact and he had to go, so the referee has got one right there.

"The lads showed a great reaction in the second half especially after the lads (John Akinde and Tyreik Wright) came on, made an impact and showed real good desire to get back into the game.

"It was a good bit of inspiration by Noah and then that changes the game.

"It gives us a massive lift and deflates them a little.

"Playing with ten men is tough - you want to bank in and be solid but once you break through that, you hopefully can then sense a bit of blood which is exactly what we did and exactly what we needed to do, to get the three points."