Crawley boss John Yems was delighted with his side’s work ethic following their 1-0 triumph at Colchester

Jack Payne’s first-half strike sealed the Reds their first away win of the season in League Two.

Payne fired in from the edge of the area, after Will Ferry had got the better of Charlie Daniels and squared the ball.

Yems said: “The players left everything out on the pitch. It’s early in the season and we’ve got a lot of work to do, with players coming back from injury.

“We’re screaming from the touchline and we have to because we’re sending players on who we know aren’t match fit and coming back from injury and the only way they’re going to do that is by playing – but they can’t play unless they’re fit.

“We stuck together – that’s the main thing. We stick together and win together and hopefully carry on winning together.

“You analyse it and we could have scored more which is disappointing – but I hope I’m disappointed like that for the next 40 games!

“We’ve got players who are injured and it’s like Russian roulette, because you’re dreading every time there’s a tackle and you think ‘oh no, here we go’.

“But there’s nothing like a win that makes you grow another six inches.”

Colchester started brightly, with Crawley goalkeeper Glenn Morris denying Alan Judge and Brendan Wiredu hooking wide.

But Payne fired Crawley ahead in the 22nd minute and Colchester goalkeeper Shamal George denied substitutes Ashley Nadesan and Kwesi Appiah before the end, as the visitors sealed a second straight win.

Colchester assistant Alex Dyer, who took the team after boss Hayden Mullins missed the match due to illness, was disappointed with the result.

Dyer said: “We started the game very well then they scored and they dominated a little bit and we’re scratching around to find our feet.

“We had to take stock and regroup which we tried to do and created a couple of chances in the second half but it was not to be.

“We came in at half-time and tried to regroup and press again in the second half but lacked that little bit of spark that we needed, to get something out of the game.

“We had good chances but when you don’t score, you think mentally that it might not be your day.

“It wasn’t to be; it wasn’t through lack of effort – it was just that we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.”

Dyer confirmed that Mullins does not have Covid but said: “He watched the game and he was giving his pointers as the game was going on – hopefully he’ll be back very soon.”