Boli inspires reserves victory over Ewes

TRIALIST Yannick Boli once again impressed as Southend’s second string saw off their inferior Essex rivals, Colchester, at the Care in the Community Stadium.
Blues won 4-2 and could even afford to miss an 11th minute penalty in a comfortable victory.
Lee Sawyer stepped up after Boli was fouled by Tom Aldred, but sent his spot-kick against the post.
Southend took the initiative with two goals in two minutes towards the end of the first half. First, Boli ran onto a Blair Sturrock flick-on to finish despite being under pressure from a defender. Then, the French trialist turned provider, capitalising on a mistake in the Colchester rearguard by advancing forward and squaring for forgotten man Jemal Johnson to curl a shot past Carl Pentney.
And it was three before the break as Blair Sturrock worked his way onto the scoresheet, flicking home a cross from Johnson.
However, Blues let their guard down, and a minute later Ashley Vincent skipped past a couple of challenges before hitting a shot into the top corner of Daniel Bentley’s net.
Johnson then scored his second of the game after running onto a pass from Blair Sturrock to finish well past Pentney on 70 minutes.
There was still time for Colchester to grab a consolation courtesy of Steve Gillespie’s free-kick, but Southend ran out comfortable winners and manager Paul Sturrock will be heartened by the performances from Johnson and Blair Sturrock as well as trialist Boli.

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