Latics' three game losing streak, in which they'd failed to find the back of the net once, came to an end in dramatic style at Boundary Park on Saturday afternoon, earning a point against Colchester thanks to goals from Chris Taylor and substitute Ryan Brooke.

Athletic had fallen behind early in the tie, when David Fox fired through the legs of Alex Marrow and Darryl Flahavan from inside the Latics area, having come from what looked like an offside position, on ten minutes.

Athletic showed worrying signs of the wastefulness in front of goal which had cost them so much in recent games when Chris Taylor and Danny Whitaker both saw half chances deflected wide following cleverly worked set plays before the half time interval.

Things went from bad to worse for Athletic at the start of the second half, when a contentious free kick on the Colchester right was swung into the Latics box and looped over Flahavan by the head of Odejayi.

The free kick was one of several decisions by Referee Ilderton which seemed to irritate the Latics fans and players as it had looked a robust but well timed challenge from Colbeck and the spotlight was again on the official on 55 minutes when he sent off former Latics man Marc Tierney for a second bookable offence, after he petulantly kicked the ball away.

Despite being 2-0 down Athletic continued to pressure the visitors and the extra space, generated by Tierney's departure helped as they were rewarded for their endeavour - thanks to an excellent run from Andy Holdsworth down the right flank for Latics.

Holdsworth's neat footwork allowed him to step inside his man on the right-edge of the area and place the ball in to the feet of Taylor, whose equally neat footwork tricked U's Captain Okuonghae into clipping his heels, bringing him down level with the penalty spot.

Taylor stepped up himself to cooly slot the ball into the roof of the net.

Latics were cutting Colchester to shreds with pacey runs down both flanks in the second half as boss Dave Penney took a bold gamble with 15 minutes remaining, replacing left back Lee Hills with striker Ryan Brooke.

Penney's bold decision was rewarded with 3 minutes remaining, when fellow substitute Keigan Parker whipped in an exceptional ball from the right to find the youngster 3 yards out, Brooke making no mistake with an excellent header.

Despite bombarding the U's goal both before and after Brooke's equalising goal Athletic were just unable to find the opening their attacking play deserved, having had 13 corners, 19 shots to Colchester's 8 and over 60% of the possession in the game.