A late Frank Nouble equaliser earned a hard fought draw for the U’s at the JobServe Community Stadium on a cold winter’s day.
It was an unwanted start for the hosts as George Maris’ free kick resulted in the Stags taking the lead through a Tommy Smith own goal. A poorly dealt with attack then resulted in Mansfield being two goals up momentarily, before the goal was correctly ruled out due to Jamie Reid being offside.
The U’s created the next big chance of the game, a long ball forwards by Josh Doherty found Nouble behind the defence of Mansfield, however, Nouble’s eventual strike could only find the side netting.
Six minutes before the break, another long ball forwards by Doherty was poorly cleared by Mansfield, Miles Welch-Hayes was allowed to roll the ball to Callum Harriot who unleashed a powerful, low shot into the bottom left corner.
After the break, it was Mansfield that emerged as the better side, with an effort from Stephen McLaughin going wide of the post. Eventually, the pressure paid off, as Mansfield were able to attack quickly with Reid picking out James Perch inside the six-yard box with the latter finding the back of the net and putting the travelling side one goal ahead with only nine minutes to go.
In the dying embers of the match, recent substitute Aramide Oteh crossed in a low ball to Nouble. Surrounded by Mansfield defenders, Nouble maintained his cool to find the space to fire the ball over the goalkeeper and into the top right corner.
Colchester were then close to scoring a winner, as Noah Chilvers’ long range strike was saved by Stone.
This result saw Colchester fall below Port Vale to 19th on goal difference with 34 points in the 28th matchday of the season. Alternatively, the draw saw Mansfield remain in 16th place, one point ahead of the U’s.