Colchester United boss, Joe Dunne, praised his side for their resilience in today’s plucky 1-1 draw at Preston.

Luke Garbutt slammed home a 77th minute equaliser, out-of-the-blue, to cancel out Joe Garner’s header in first half stoppage time.

It was certainly an unlikely point for the U’s, who had been under the cosh at Deepdale for most of the game.

“It was an exceptionally brave point,” insisted Dunne.

“We spoke at half-time. This was a decision we had to make now, about whether we wanted to go out and get hammered, or whether we wanted to, in the circumstances, nick a point.

“We dug in and we dug deep.

“We had to make changes (because of injuries to Freddie Sears and Gavin Massey), and I thought in the second half we had a good go.

“Preston had a lot of chances, but that’s football.

“If they had taken their chances it could have been, in all honesty, a heavy defeat.

“But I’d like to pay credit to my players. We stuck at it,” added Dunne.