Colchester 1-1 Crawley Town
- Published
Anthony Wordsworth scored a late penalty as Colchester secured a draw at home to Crawley in League One.
The visitors hit the woodwork three times as Mike Jones twice hit the post and U's goalkeeper Mark Cousins tipped Nicky Adams' curler onto the crossbar.
Kyle McFadzean's close-range header gave Crawley the lead and they looked set to go third in the table.
But they had to be content with fourth as Wordsworth converted from the spot after McFadzean had fouled Marcus Bean.
Colchester are still without a win this season but have drawn four of their seven matches.
VIEWS FROM THE DRESSING ROOM
Colchester manager John Ward told BBC Essex:
Ward unhappy with Crawley goal
"Anthony (Wordsworth) had a big scare at Brentford, going off on a stretcher there, and he's bounced back pretty strongly and wanted to be on the ball a lot.
"That says a lot in a team that's finding life difficult, which we are at the moment - I make no bones about it.
"When you get a penalty, you really fancy him to be calm and put it in the back of the net and that's what he did for the team.
"He can open things up, find a pass, strike a shot or whatever, so we wanted to get him on the ball that little bit more and we just changed the shape at half-time, got Anthony on the ball and we threatened their goal a bit more."