After the Southend United under-19 team's first preseason friendly versus Colchester United at Garon Park, youth team coach Danny Heath is happy with the team's current state.
Colchester, a Category Two Academy team, presented the Blues with a difficult opponent for their opening game of 2025–26.
Colchester brought three members of their U21 team to the match, which saw 11 substitutions made by both teams before halftime.
Heath was pleased with the outcome of the game, even though his team lost 3-2.
"We divided the games into red, amber, and green categories as part of our preseason planning, with the red games being those that would present a technical, tactical, or physical challenge for the boys," Heath explained.
"Green games are where we should feel at ease, and amber is in the middle."
We have a lot of red games early in the season because many EFL clubs start in August, and this was one of them.
"We knew the boys would be stretched and challenged in this game, and even though we might not have much of the ball, we should still be competing."
In the eleventh minute, midfielder Muhammad Limbada crashed over from the edge of the penalty box after captain Joe Poxon's volleyed effort earned a save from the visiting custodian, demonstrating Heath's competitiveness.
A rasping drive headed for the upper right-hand corner was expertly clawed away by Shrimpers goalkeeper Josh Barrett shortly after, but as the first half went on, the home team settled into the game and displayed some strong play patterns.
in the half-hour, Rio Thomas produced a fantastic challenge to stop a Colchester striker in the penalty area, but in the 37th minute, Southend lost when the defender, who had been given the ball by custodian Barrett, hesitated, thinking he had been fouled on the edge of the penalty area.
A forward circled Barrett to score after play was permitted to continue. Southend levelled on 53 minutes after Luca Sorrentino made a superb near-post save early in the second half.
Zevieyan Makangu took control in the right-hand section of the penalty box, danced past a defender, and then fired home at the near post.
After Sisanda Maguranyanga collected Nathan Woodley's accurate through-ball in the 59th minute, the score was 2-1.
Despite being fouled by the goalie, Maguranyanga scored the penalty by hitting the inside of the left-hand post. Halfway through the second half, a forward controlled a long ball down the left-hand side and softly lifted his effort beyond Sorrentino to give Colchester the equaliser.
Five minutes from the end, Thomas was ruled to have hauled down a forward, and the penalty was stroked home to give the visitors a 3-2 victory.
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