COLCHESTER United were held to a frustrating 1-1 home draw by Crawley Town in their opening game of 2020 this afternoon.

The U's extended their unbeaten league run to ten matches with the result, at the JobServe Community Stadium.

However, the home side will probably see this as a case of two points dropped, especially as they had led just after the hour mark through Frank Nouble's fine strike.

Ollie Palmer's scrappy goal soon after earned the visitors a share of the spoils, leaving Colchester disappointed.

Colchester head coach John McGreal made three changes to his side for their game against Crawley.

Skipper Luke Prosser returned from a knee injury and Ryan Clampin and Nouble were also recalled.

Injured defensive duo Cohen Bramall and Omar Sowunmi were both ruled out and Kwame Poku dropped to the bench, while midfielder Tom Lapslie was suspended.

Perhaps it was because they were unusually attacking the South Stand end in the first half but Colchester made a sluggish start to their first game of 2020.

Crawley in contrast looked sharp in the first half and created the bulk of the game’s early openings.

Palmer missed his kick in front of goal after Josh Cogley had delivered a low cross, before the offside flag was raised.

Nathan Ferguson’s 25-yard curled effort sailed wide of the target for the visitors soon after while Josh Doherty’s attempted cross had to be punched away from under his own crossbar for a corner by Dean Gerken, who was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers.

Gerken tipped over Joe McNerney’s header from Bez Lubala’s corner and then made a good block at his near post to deny Palmer at point-blank range following Dannie Bulman’s ball into the box, as the visitors pressed.

The U’s failed to get going in the first half and they almost went in at the break behind when just before half-time, Palmer’s superb run resulted in a shot that Gerken parried away into the path of Ashley Nadesan, who wastefully fired the rebound wide.

But Colchester looked brighter and more inventive in the second half and they broke the deadlock in the 64th minute.

After Harriott had ran at the Crawley defence on the left and picked him out, Nouble fired a fine low shot past keeper Glenn Morris from the edge of the area for his first goal since October 5.

However, the U’s lead did not last long.

Crawley were level again in the 72nd minute when Palmer bundled the ball in on the line after keeper Gerken, Luke Prosser and Ryan Clampin had failed to sufficiently clear Nadesan’s low cross into the six-yard box.

Colchester tried hard to find a winner after that but the points were shared, as they started the New Year with a draw.