Colchester United are refusing to budge at the top end of the table.
Despite two League One defeats in a row they have dusted themselves off and got back with the front-runners thanks to an impressive victory at Bournemouth.
Craig Fagan was back in form with a vengeance, scoring with an extraordinary 20-yard lob, after being marked out of the last two fixtures.
Ben May and new signing Gareth Williams also added to the tally in a match that was of a much higher calibre than the one U's fans had to endure last Saturday against Swindon.
On Saturday you could simply put the boot on the other foot, and it came partly in thanks to new loan signing Neil Danns.
The 21-year-old from Premiership side Blackburn Rovers gave Colchester that extra bit of grit in the middle of the park.
It was a Danns' ball that started the move to see Fagan bag the first goal.
The midfielder pushed forward before passing it to Williams. He laid off an inch-perfect ball that Fagan cheekily lobbed over keeper Neil Moss from 20 yards after just ten minutes.
This sparked the Cherries into life and they came close to levelling 13 minutes later.
Garreth O'Conner showed good skill in bringing the ball into the Colchester box, but skipper Wayne Brown put in a goal-saving tackle to stop him as he readied himself to fire in an equaliser.
The ball fell to Watson and with great vision he made a long pass to Williams on the right flank.
The Welshman moved towards the goal before lofting a long cross to Fagan on the opposite wing.
Fagan then delivered a superb cross for Williams to head past the outstretched arm of Moss and into the back of the net, no less than a minute after Brown's crunching denial on O'Conner.
The U's failed to heed the warning bell of second-half attacks and paid the price on 75 minutes when Alan Connell slid in at the far post to convert Warren Cummins' low cross, despite being under pressure from Sam Stockley.
Stockley, it appeared, was eager to make amends for failing to deny Connell and he justifiably did so four minutes later when he played in a well-weighted ball for substitute May to powerfully head home from distance.
Published Monday September 13, 2004
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