Brentford stunned by late equaliser

Brentford 1 Colchester 1

Anthony Wordsworth’s injury-time free-kick dramatically denied Brentford a victory that would have taken them to the top of League One.

Colchester were reduced to 10 men when John-Joe O’Toole was red-carded with eight minutes remaining, but they rescued a point courtesy of Wordsworth’s 25-yarder.

Clayton Donaldson’s 56th-minute goal looked like securing three deserved points for the Bees, who started the evening in fourth place and would have moved to the summit had they won, as leaders Sheffield United were beaten at home by Huddersfield.

Donaldson, whose pace and power worried the U’s back four throughout, raced onto Myles Weston’s ball over the top and held off defender Magnus Okuonghae before firing into the corner of the net.

That looked like giving his team a third consecutive 1-0 win and their fifth victory in five matches, but Wordsworth had other ideas.

Brentford boss Uwe Rosler made four changes from the team that started Saturday’s match at Wycombe.

Sunderland left-back Blair Adams was handed a debut and there was a first start for fellow loanee Miguel Llera at centre-back, while Niall McGinn and Jake Reeves were also brought in.

McGinn and Adams combined after 26 minutes to create the Bees’ first meaningful chance of the game.

The on-loan Celtic man cut in from the left and exchanged passes with Adams before curling a shot narrowly wide.

It suddenly brought the home side to life. They dominated the rest of the half and had three more opportunities to go ahead before the interval.

Marcus Bean’s volley from Adams’ left-wing cross was tipped over by United goalkeeper Mark Cousins, before Adam Thompson’s cross from the opposite flank was volleyed over by Jonathan Douglas.

Weston was next to go close, shooting wide from just inside the penalty area after squirming away from two Colchester defenders.

Brentford were almost hit with a sucker punch in first-half stoppage time, when Michail Antonio fired wastefully wide after Karleigh Osborne had failed to deal with Ian Henderson’s right-wing cross.

Henderson was by far Colchester’s most impressive player and brought a fine save from keeper Richard Lee six minutes after the restart.

Lee, who was outstanding against Wycombe, again produced the goods, diving to his right to push away Henderson’s powerful shot after the midfielder had jinked his way into the box.

It turned out to be an important moment in the match because shortly afterwards, Donaldson pounced to score his third goal since his summer move from Crewe.

And when Lee produced a stunning reaction save to push away Steven Gillespie’s shot after a defensive mix-up, and O’Toole was dismissed after chopping down Weston, Brentford looked home and dry.

But Wordsworth’s last-gasp strike not only denied them top spot, it meant they dropped a place to fifth.