in the first round of the fa cup, colchester were drawn against conference south outfit gosport borough who were featuring in the first round of the cup for the first time in their 70-year history. gavin massey opened the scoring for the visitors after 14-minutes, and sanchez watt doubled the lead seven minutes later. sears scored colchester's third of the match on 26-minutes from the penalty spot. justin bennett pulled a goal back for the hosts on 39-minutes, but alex gilbey put the u's firmly back in front prior to half-time. gosport once again reduced the deficit to 4–2 as bennett scored his second of the game, before sears scored his second of the game on 78-minutes. both teams scored in stoppage time as sammie szmodics registered his first professional goal, before lee wort finalised the 6–3 result.