What the press made of the U's success
The Chronicle
Chris Dagnall scored twice as Crewe Alex took a huge stride towards safety with a 2-0 victory over Colchester United at Gresty Road on Saturday.
The in-form striker scored in both halves to take his tally to 12 for the season, and seven in the last six games, as the Railwaymen moved onto 45 points in League Two.
And with results elsewhere going their way, Crewe are now 13 points clear of the drop zone and up to 18th with eight games to go.
It was an excellent day at the office for manager David Artell and his men, who have now taken nine points from the last 12, keeping a clean sheet in each of those successes.
Colchester Gazette
Colchester United’s away form failed to improve on a damp and chilly day in the north west as they lost for a ninth time on their League Two travels.
While their home record has been impressive, the U’s have struggled to turn performances into points away from the Weston Homes Community Stadium this year and that was the case at Crewe.
The U’s looked by far the more adventurous side in the second half as they kept their hosts pinned back for much of the 45 minutes.
However, the goal just wouldn’t come for them and the real damage had been done in the first half by Chris Dagnall’s 26th minute headed effort that had put the Railwaymen ahead.
The game was wrapped up late on by a second goal from the same player as Colchester were left licking their wounds on the bus home once again.
There was also added torment as they lost Sammie Szmodics early on to what looked like a recurrence of an ankle injury and the sight of him being stretchered down the touchline was one no U’s fans wanted to see.