Bradford City boss, Phil Parkinson, rates his old club Colchester United as one of the “best sides” in League One.

The U’s dazzled in a rip-roaring 2-2 draw in Yorkshire on Saturday, becoming the first visiting club to score a league goal and take a point, at Valley Parade this season.

Goals from debutant Jeffrey Monakana and centre-forward Jabo Ibehre ruined Bradford’s 100% home record.

But Parkinson, arguably the U’s most successful manager in the Essex club’s history, after masterminding promotion to the Championship in 2005-06, was not surprised by Saturday’s result.

“Colchester are a very good side,” insisted Parkinson.

“I had watched every one of their games they had played this season, and barring last week at Coventry, I thought they were one of the best teams I had seen.

“They were excellent in early-season. They played really well away at Sheffield United, were excellent at home to Port Vale, and with (Leyton) Orient at home I thought they deserved something out of the game.

“So I knew this would be tough today, even though some people might have thought this would have been an easy game for us.”

The former U’s boss added: “It’s good to see Colchester producing some of their own players.

They have got some good young players, and some very dangerous players.

“I thought it was a really good game, and Colchester contributed their part to this. Even though in theory they only had one up front, they had a counter-attacking kind of game that meant they were dangerous on the break.

“It was a good test for us and the standard is certainly a notch up from last year.”