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Colchester United were facing Walsall in League Two when referee Carl Brook had to pause the match after a drone was sighted over the JobServe Community Stadium

The League Two clash between Colchester United and Walsall had to be paused after a drone was spotted flying over the stadium. In the 81st minute, with Saturday's contest finely poised at 1-1, officials brought play to a halt.

Referee Carl Brook instructed both sets of players to leave the pitch at Colchester's JobServe Community Stadium. The home side posted on X: "Play paused due to a drone flying above the pitch.

Walsall added: "Play has been paused with both sides off the pitch as a drone has emerged and is flying above the stadium. Not something you see every day is it?!"

A Sky Sports reporter was at the game and gave fans on update during their Soccer Saturday programme. "There's about eight minutes to go here, but we don't have any players on the pitch," they explained.

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"The referee has taken them off because we had a drone flying just above the playing surface here at the stadium. So the players, quite quickly, left the pitch. An announcement has gone out to say that the drone is the reason that the match has been stopped for the time being.

"We were watching it hovering above the stadium and then it did drift out of sight to the far end, and we saw it going down in the sky, clearly landing."

After a four-minute delay, the players returned to the pitch and the match was able to resume. No team could find a winner, though, and it ended 1-1.

There were just four minutes between the goals. Colchester winger Harry Anderson cancelled out the opener from Walsall centre-back Harrison Burke shortly after the hour mark.

Had they hung on to claim all three points, Walsall would be eighth and only outside the play-offs on goal difference. As for Colchester, they're down in 14th, nine points adrift of the play-offs.

It's not the first time that we've seen a game in English football paused because of a drone. Last season, the Premier League clash between Brentford and Fulham had to be halted when a drone was hovering over the stadium.

At the beginning of 2023, Southampton and Aston Villa were also forced to delay their match for the same reason. And in 2020, Rotherham United and Sheffield Wednesday saw their Championship fixture interrupted by a drone.

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