WAYNE Brown was asked in the immediate aftermath of Colchester United’s memorable Carabao Cup triumph at Ipswich Town who he would like in the second round of the competition.
“We’ve got Stockport away on Saturday so we’ll be on the bus on Friday and worrying about that and trying to get a result,” was the dry response from the U’s head coach.
It was typical of the diligent Brown to quickly shift his focus to his side’s League Two game.
But even the Colchester boss allowed himself some time to savour the club’s excellent triumph at the home of their near neighbours.
After all, this was undoubtedly a memorable night for the U’s and their supporters, who must have been glad they made the 15-mile trip over the county border to see their team pull off a memorable result.
Brown knew the importance of celebrating the 1-0 victory, given to Colchester courtesy of Luke Hannant’s first-half strike which came gift wrapped courtesy of Rekeem Harper’s sloppy pass.
It was without doubt hard earned; a disciplined team performance where every player played their part.
Rather predictably as the League One side playing at home and regardless of the fact that this was a much-changed Ipswich starting line-up, they dominated possession and created the better chances, over the course of the 90 minutes.
Town were undoubtedly wasteful in front of goal but in truth, Colchester goalkeeper Sam Hornby had only one key save to make throughout.
The U's shape and organisation frustrated Ipswich for large periods, testament to their workmanlike attitude and determination to get the job done.
Impressively, four of the Colchester players who started were academy products, two of whom were making their first-ever senior starts for the club.
The performance of Al-Amin Kazeem and Marley Marshall Miranda youngsters stood out; both were outstanding and seemed to relish the opportunity to play on a bigger stage.
But that will have come as no surprise to Brown and his fellow coaches nor perhaps U's fans who attended some of the club's summer friendlies.
Both Kazeem and Miranda shone in the U's pre-season games and did not look out of place, in the first-team set-up.
Add to that the performances of Noah Chilvers and Junior Tchamadeu and it was a pretty good advert for the U's academy.
Not that the club's senior players did not play their part.
The applause that rang out for Luke Chambers, Cole Skuse and Frank Nouble from the Portman Road faithful said much about the esteem that they are still clearly held among Town fans.
And their performances on the night were a throwback to their days in Suffolk, where they gave everything for the shirt.
It was a memorable night for Colchester, their first win in the competition since they beat Crawley Town to reach the quarter-finals back in 2019.
John McGreal was in charge of the U's back then and he was in the stands last night to watch his former club beat his current employers.
He will no doubt have been impressed by his old team's display but the key is now for Colchester to transfer this win and performance into the game on Stockport, on Saturday.
As Brown says, full steam ahead to Edgley Park.
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