The luck turned Saints way at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.
In recent weeks away from home Saints have desperately lacked luck amd on Saturday they got it.
For half an hour the game hung in the balance, in truth Adkins had took a heck of a gamble in playing the same side that was so toothless at Walsall (with the exception of OXO) The home side looked the livelier in those opening stages and although Saints seemed to be coping well the hosts were getting crosses in well and hurling long throws in.
On the half hour mark the game changed when Chamberlain stabbed in the rebound after a Rickie Lambert free kick had cannoned off the wall and minutes later the hosts were down to 10 men, there was an element of Fred Karnos about the situation, firstly Kelvin Davis coming for a fairly innoccuos through ball seeme to think he was going to carry it out of the are by his momentum and bizarrley appeared to let it go, as he was scrambling back to get it one of their players sensed a chance and suddenly lunged in, Danny Butterfield got involved as did another of their players who shoved Butterfield and after the melee had subsided as sent off.
Saints suddenly found themselves with a man extra and this good fortune came from their own goalkeepers error, sometimes you just cant make it up with Saints, if Davis had gathered the ball as he should then the game could have turned out much differently.
At half time Saints could feel fortunate to be in the lead, in truth they had not had the better of the first half hour, but had a couple of strokes of luck which had turned the game firmly in their way, the big question now was could they keep tight second half and not throw the advantage away.
The Saints cause got a big boost on 50 minutes when Dean Hammond fired home the sort of goal that makes you wonder why he so rarely scores, from now on it was a case of Saints being tight and not giving the home side any glimmer of hope,
The game settled into a pattern, Saints would be content to hold off colchester get the ball and go on the break, but these tactics were allowing the Essex side to get too many set pieces and throw ins where they could launch the ball into our box for comfort and as the game entered its final 20 minutes you felt that if they got the goal then they might get their tails up, then Nigel Adkins did something that shocked most Saints fans present, he brought on Arron Martin.
The big question since Adkins arrived is why he hasnt used Martin, yes he is raw, but he can only gain experience one way and he looks to have all the attributes at least at this level, suddenly we had fresh legs at the back as well as height and we looked stronger for it, starting to look more like a side that had a man extra than one walking on eggshells.
In the final ten minutes or so including five of injury time Saints finally seemed to really look the part again and looked solid, with Richardson and N Guessan both injecting fresh legs at the vital moments we ran down the clock, perhaps the funniest thing Being Hardings insistence of taking a towel from the ball boys to wipe the ball, a tactic their long throw merchants employed, after wasting vital seconds Harding then usually threw it about ten yards, it wasnt major but it showed Saints were focused.
The summary of this game is that we shouldnt get too carried away just yet, but we did find a spirit that has been missing in the past two months again, Colchester is a difficult place to come, this was only their third home defeat, I am still not sure about the manager, I think when we are on top he can make decisions, but too often when we are under the cosh he doesnt know what to do for the best.
Now we have to beat yeovil and then head to Bournemouth, our problem recently is we cant put a run of wins together, all season its been stop start, now we have to make it two in a row and then the pressure is on Bournemouth.
Yesterday we trod water in the league, by winning it meant that we couldnt lose ground, but Huddersfield dropped vital points and so did Charlton and of course Colchester behind us, meaning that a play off spot looks assured now we have to focus on second