A first start for midfielder Alfie McCalmont couldn’t really have gone any better when, with just four minutes on the clock, he found himself with just the keeper to beat as he pounced on a loose ball on the edge of the box.
“He was as calm as you like with his finish, and it was a mistake, but you have to make them count in the way that Alfie did,” boss Paul Simpson said. “It was funny because on a difficult night like last Tuesday, where you need something, me and Gav were talking and we said that if only we could see one of their centre backs making a mistake that we can benefit from, because we haven’t really had many of those I don’t think over the course of the season.
“It was unfortunate for Colchester but it was nice for us. Alfie was in the right place at the right time and he was calm, composed, and he finished it off really well. That’s a reward for him in the way he’s trained since he came into the club. He’s had to be patient and he’s done well.”
“That’s what players have to do,” he continued. “You’ve got to take your chance, which he did. I thought Corey Whelan took his chance, he was excellent when he came on.
“He went into a position he wasn’t really comfortable with, or it’s not his favoured position, and we had to make a decision with Jack Ellis because he was tiring. His legs were tightening up, so we made that change with Corey because he’s the sort of player who goes about his business properly.
“We’re going to have to have everybody doing that. At the moment we’ve got 19 players, maybe Ben Barclay will be back in next week to make it 20, but it’s possibly going to be a long shot for him to be involved at Crawley.
“After that we’re talking weeks and weeks before anybody else comes back. We’ll see Edmo before we see Taylor Charters, possibly, so we’re going to need everybody with us.
“At this stage of the season there’s no room for sulking and moaning if you don’t get selected, you have to just stick together. This week has been a bit of a reset, and next week will be the same, so that we’re all ready to go for this last run of fixtures to get over the line.”
Touching again on the inclusion of midfielder McCalmont, he added: “I thought he was excellent. He’s probably been a bit unfortunate not to play more games, but that's been because of the way we've been as a team.
“And I'm sure people wondered why he didn't go on the other night, but I felt we needed a different physical profile in that game for the second half. I just thought it wasn’t about football, it was damage limitation, so that's why we put Jayden on.
“But he's waited patiently. I've recognised he's a good footballer, I think he can get goals as well, and I thought he was excellent in a lot of things that he did.
“To stay part of it all he has to do is what he did in the fourth minute today, and if he carries on playing like he did he’s going to be fine. He’s a good character and goes about his business properly, he trains properly.
“And I've got to say I can say that about most of this group. The majority of this group, Jack Robinson, trains absolutely fantastically well. You can tell that they've been brought up properly.
“Alfie's the same as that, he works hard in training, and he does things properly. He's waited patiently for his chance, has been chomping at the bit. He's got it, he scored a goal and he's going to make it really difficult for me to leave him out.
“I think he can play as what I would call as an eight or he can play as a ten just behind two strikers. So I think he just gives us options to go on top of the other players that we've got, and hopefully he gets even better.”
