COLCHESTER United boss John Ward had no complaints with last night’s 3-1 defeat at Walsall, insisting that the “best team” won.

This was the U’s eighth game of a nine-game March, an energy-sapping run, and they could not maintain their recent high standards at the Bescot Stadium.

“It was a game too far, or at least it looked like that for some of the boys tonight,” explained Ward.

“We suffered a little bit and the best team have won in terms of the whole 90 minutes.

“We had a good start but we couldn’t obviously maintain that, and their free-kick to make it 1-1 fired them up and gave them a big lift.

“After that we needed to stay with the game, but the second goal came from a bit of hesitancy on our part. Walsall’s tails were then up.

“We couldn’t find that cutting edge in the second half, and didn’t have that sharpness of play. We’ve tried very hard, and there was a lot of huff and puff, but we didn’t get it right.

“Regardless of the play-offs, we have seven games left and we must stay professional and try to win matches.

“Nothing is over, until it’s over, but we’ve disappointed ourselves tonight.”

The U’s have another away trip, at Exeter on Saturday.