'˜It was either to hit top corner or hit the Pizza Hut,' reflects Craig Davies on Mansfield Town wonder strike

Leading by his 81st minute blast after he had come on as a substitute, Stags looked home and dry until they failed to defend a stoppage time long throw.

“Obviously it’s nice to come on and get a goal, but it felt like a kick in the teeth to concede in the fashion we did so late on,” he said.

“I think we did enough to win it today. I watched the first hour from the bench and they were not causing us many problems.

“So to concede like that was disappointing, but we’ll go again on Tuesday night.”

Davies will not have scored many better goals in his career than the one which finally broke the deadlock, smashing home from 18 yards.

He said: “I wanted to try to get a right foot shot off but I took an extra touch which killed the angle.

“I hit the ball and thought this is either going to hit the top corner or hit the Pizza Hut behind – one of the two.

“But I knew I had caught it sweet and was happy to see it hit the net.”

He added: “Colchester are a good team who will be up there at the end of the season, so it could prove to be a good point.

“Everyone is disappointed, players and supporters, as we should have seen the game out. Now we have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”