Colchester United 0–3 Tottenham Hotspur on 21 July 2021

Three first-half goals did the job as we defeated Colchester United 3-0 in our second pre-season friendly on Wednesday evening.

Heung-Min Son scored just 11 minutes into his first match back from his summer break before Lucas Moura and Dele Alli put us comfortably in control at the JobServe Community Stadium.

Colchester still carried a threat, goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman forced to make a couple of superb saves on his first senior start for us, while young strikers Dane Scarlett and Troy Parrott went close after coming off the bench in the second half.

Once again there were opportunities for a number of Under-23 players, particularly after the interval, as we saw out the game professionally to record our first win under Nuno Espirito Santo following Saturday's 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient.

Lucas was denied by goalkeeper Shamal George early on, but it was his pass moments later that sent Steven Bergwijn away down the left, with the Dutch forward unselfishly squaring for Son to slot under George and into the net, prompting a huge cheer from the healthy crowd in attendance.

We scored again four minutes later, Son going close before delivering the resulting corner into the box, where Lucas crashed a header beyond George and into the far top corner. Bergwijn went storming through 60 seconds later and went down under Luke Hannant's tackle from behind, but the referee waved play on.

Nevertheless, it was 3-0 on 38 minutes as Academy defender Maksim Paskotsi - again playing at right-back - sent Son running towards the byline down his flank, with his cross converted in the centre by Dele.

At the other end, Whiteman gathered Alan Judge's free-kick low down in his six-yard box before making a flying save from Brendan Wiredu at the start of the second period.

Nile John's shot from 18 yards out was deflected just wide while Scarlett produced a great first-time finish in the box, only to be denied by the off-side flag.

Whiteman preserved his clean sheet by tipping Luke Chambers' effort from a corner onto the crossbar, while some superb subsequent defending from Japhet Tanganga denied Tom Eastman a breakthrough. Parrott embarked on a fine solo run as we sought a fourth goal in the closing stages but his eventual shot was charged down.

Nuno said after the match: "That was the idea, the tempo, the intensity, the rhythm of the game was good, the boys worked really, really hard and that was the main point, to work hard. Now we recover the boys tomorrow. We’ll have a good session and at the same time, the players who didn’t have as much time will work, and we’ll keep our cycles until we approach the competition. It’s all about building, improving, getting faster, getting stronger. It’s all about that."