Crawley Town still looking for first away point under Gabriele Cioffi after Colchester United defeat

George Francomb for Mark Randall was the only change to the starting line-up who beat Cambridge United in the league last Saturday.

Glenn Morris was the star of the show last week and he started off in the same form when he did brilliantly to get down and deny the header from Luke Norris after just six minutes.

On 24 minutes, Harry Pell drove forward into the area and forced Morris into another save with a powerful shot.

Gabriele Cioffi's side went behind on 27 minutes following a quick counter attack. Sammie Szmodics - who always seems to score against Crawley - smashed the home side ahead from six yards out.

There was almost an instant reply when Lewis Young found Ollie Palmer but his bullet header was saved by Gilmartin, before Dominic Poleon's attempt at an overhead kick didn't pay off.

But the Reds didn't have to wait too long for the equaliser. On 39 minutes, Luke Gambin was brought down in the box and Felipe Morais levelled matters from the spot.

Eleven minutes after the break, the home side took the lead. The U's were as fast as lightning on a counter attack and Frank Nouble smashed home from Norris' lay off.

The Reds hit back and had a couple of chances to equalise. Joe Maguire's cross was a matter of centimetres wide of the right hand post. Poleon was in the mix too and could have maybe got a touch. Then Mark Connolly tried his luck from distance and it caught the goalkeeper off guard but he managed to backtrack and get his fingertips to it.

Panutche Camara and Josh Payne both had chances but couldn't score. The former had his effort cleared off the line. Morris kept Reds in the game with an acrobatic save from Szmodics with eight minutes left.

It was Colchester who did get the next goal when Norris scored in 90th minute to kill off the game.

The Reds had good support at the Colchester Community Stadium. The club tweeted: "We've had it confirmed that there are 212 Reds fans amongst a crowd of 3,208 here at Colchester. Thank you for your superb support!"

SEE ALSO Crawley Town players Ashley Nathaniel-George and Bondz N’Gala fit for visit to Colchester United | Crawley Town head coach Gabriele Cioffi hinted he could make changes for the visit of Colchester United | Crawley Town player David Sesay reckons Reds can win on the road at Colchester United