Gillingham goalscorer Curtis Weston tries to break through the Colchester defence

by Luke Cawdell

Colchester 2 Gillingham 1

Gillingham suffered their second successive defeat on the road after losing their League 1 clash at Colchester on Tuesday night.

Colchester came from behind to take the lead at the Community Stadium as a goal either side of the interval cancelled out Curtis Weston’s early strike.

The Gills went ahead after eleven minutes when left-back John Nutter burst into the box and laid the ball off for Weston, who had a simple finish from close range.

Gillingham had earlier come close to conceding as Jack Payne slid in to clear off the line after David Fox shot low.

The U’s were themselves grateful to some quick-thinking defending when Josh Gowling’s header from Nutter’s corner-kick was headed off the line by Kem Izzet.

An open half saw chances come and go at both ends with Adam Miller missing a glorious chance for the Gills from inside the area. Barcham played the ball across but the midfielder couldn’t keep the shot down and it sailed over the bar.

The home side levelled on 38 minutes when Kevin Lisbie got the better of Gowling and crossed for his strike partner Scott Vernon to stroke home.

Colchester’s first real chance of the second half saw them take the lead when Kevin Lisbie picked his spot and shot past ‘keeper Alan Julian with 66 minutes gone.

Barcham and Adam Miller put efforts wide for Gillingham and Julian had to make a good save to deny Simon Hackney, who curled in a free-kick from the edge of the box.

Hear some of Mark Stimson's thoughts after the game.

Gills boss Mark Stimson said: "We were unfortunate again like we were on Saturday and I’ll be driving people mad saying it.

"We scored a great first goal, it absolutely fantastic. It was a great ball for Curtis but unfortunately we gave them a goal like we did on Saturday. You can't give teams goals because if you do you aren’t going to win matches.

"After that we got back into the game, but we probably didn’t pass it as much as we wanted to in the second half like we had in the first. When we did pass it, it was a bit like knife through butter and they couldn’t get anywhere near us.

"You could see what it meant to the Colchester players after the game and for the crowd, it meant a hell of a lot to beat us, because they could see we are a decent side.

"We just need to cut out these defensive mistakes and get a win or two. Hopefully by then we’ll have a couple of key men back and the picture will look a bit more rosier."

Gills: Julian, Fuller, Nutter, Richards, Gowling, Payne, Weston, Miller, Barcham, Bentley (Erskine 86mins), Jackson. Subs not used: Royce, Maher, Palmer, Wynter, Rooney, McCammon.

Colchester: Williams, Beevers, Okuonghae, Baldwin, Vincent (Thomas 82mins), Izzet, Hackney (Perkins 90mins), Fox, Lisbie (Wordsworth 90mins), Tierney, Vernon. Subs not used: Maybury, Cousins, Holt, Malton.

Attendance: 4,849