Colchester 2 Brentford 1
Brentford were on the way to their sixth away league victory of the season before substitute Steven Gillespie scored twice in the final eight minutes.
Niall McGinn put Uwe Rosler’s side ahead 11 minutes into the second half when he netted from the rebound after Gary Alexander’s penalty had been saved by Colchester keeper Ben Williams.
McGinn had earlier gone close with a long-range effort which struck the post.
He was unlucky not open the scoring then, but did so after Jake Bidwell exchanged passes with Myles Weston and was brought down by Karl Duguid.
Williams kept out the resulting penalty, which Alexander blasted down the middle, but the loose ball was headed down by Toumani Diagouraga to McGinn, who registered his fourth goal of the campaign.
But Colchester responded late on and almost equalised when former Brentford star Martin Rowlands – also on as a second-half substitute for the U’s – delivered a free-kick from the right and Tom Eastman headed wide.
The Essex team eventually drew level when Gillespie bundled home after Ian Henderson’s effort had bounced down off the crossbar.
And two minutes later Gillespie struck again, this time with a swerving shot that deceived keeper Richard Lee.
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This post was last modified on 16/02/2012