Colchester United head coach Steve Ball hailed the “great finishes” of Jevani Brown, after the former Young Reggae Boyz attacking midfielder scored his second hat-trick for his English League 2 club in the space of seven days.
Brown, 26, scored a league hat-trick against Stevenage last week and delivered another treble this past Tuesday in a 6-1 rout against Essex neighbours, Southend United in an English Football League Trophy match.
Brown opened the scoring with a header, then chipped over the goalkeeper after being put through for the second before completing his hat-trick with a second-half penalty to take his tally of goals for the season to nine.
Sandwiched between those Colchester wins was a shock FA Cup defeat at home at the weekend against non-League side, Marine in which Brown missed the chance to score the game-winner before it was settled on penalties.
“They were great finishes from Jevani and his second goal was sublime and a real bit of quality,” Ball said. “If we give JB the service, he scores.
“He knows himself. He should have got the winner in the last few minutes against Marine on Saturday when he had that one-on-one chance, but he took his chances (on Tuesday) and they were great finishes.”
It was Colchester’s biggest-ever win over Southend and saw Brown become the club’s first player to score two hat-tricks in a season since Jamie Cureton achieved the feat in the 2006-07 campaign.
Next up for Colchester, 11th in the table is a home league game against 13th-placed Leyton Orient on Saturday.
CMC
