Heartbreak at the death as Freddie Sears’ penalty denies Mansfield Town three points against Colchester United

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The Stags were the dominant force throughout the encounter, but in the dying embers of the game, the U’s were given a penalty which Freddie Sears scored to earn them a point against the amber and blues.

Mansfield looked to attack the Colchester goal from minute one as Stephen McLaughlin played the ball into Danny Johnson. The forward tried to pass it to his strike partner Rhys Oates but the hosts’ defence cleared the ball away from danger.

The first shot on goal fell for the Stags inside the first 10 minutes. Ollie Clarke released a shot from outside the box which was saved by Shamal George. However, the goalkeeper parried the ball into the path of Johnson, however, he got up quickly to tip the effort out for a corner.

Nigel Clough’s men continued to threaten the Colchester goal with Stags’ captain Ollie Clarke, McLaughlin, Ferrand Rawson, Stephen Quinn and Johnson all having shots either saved by George or blocked by the resolute U’s defence.

Colchester did not look threatening at all in the opening half an hour. Crosses from the left-hand side lacked real quality and would not reach a blue shirt as the ball rolled out for a throw-in every time.

In the 40th minute, Frank Nouble had the first shot for the U’s. However, he blazed his shot over the bar after substitute Cameron Coxe found the forward inside the Stags penalty area.

Luke Hannant had the final effort of the first half. The midfielder cut inside and released a shot goalwards with Nathan Bishop catching the ball with relative ease.

Colchester started the second half like they finished the first. A mistake from Maris allowed Chilvers to release a shot goalwards but his effort was deflected wide and out for a corner with the subsequent corner coming to nothing.

A minute later, good play from George Lapslie saw the midfielder pass the ball to Quinn who in turn threaded the ball through to Johnson. The forward took struck the ball goalwards with George coming out quickly to block the shot from going in.

The Stags finally found their breakthrough in the 73rd minute after a whole host of chances were missed. Quinn delivered a wonderful ball into the box that saw the leaping Elliott Hewitt connect with it and give the amber and blues a much-deserved lead.

From that point onwards, the hosts turned the screw and pilled on the pressure. Noah Chilvers and Sylvester Jasper were the main attacking threats as the duo had shot after shot but found no luck in finding the back of the net.

In the dying embers of the game, Colchester were given a lifeline as McLaughlin was adjudged to have tripped Nouble inside the penalty area with referee Sam Allison pointing to the spot.

Sears stepped up to take the penalty and beat Bishop even though Stags’ number one got a glove to the ball. Clough will be disappointed with a draw after such a dominant display from his team, but they return to home comforts this weekend as they take on Bradford City at the One Call Stadium with Colchester facing Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park.

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