Colchester United manager John Ward admits the fledgling League One table makes for a frustrating sight.

The U’s played some entertaining football against one of the promotion favourites and looked to be heading for victory following Andy Bond’s stunning strike.

David Mooney hit the post soon after the opener, but the Essex side’s failure to kill off the game was punished for the second week running when substitute Neil Mellor smashed home six minutes from time.

“I’ve got those same mixed feelings as I did at Exeter last week,” said Ward. “I’m disappointed not to have won the game, but I’m so pleased with the way we’ve performed against one of the teams that are favourites to get out of this division.

“It gives me a lot of pleasure to see Sheffield Wednesday celebrating a point here, but I’m frustrated that we couldn’t quite get the win,

“I’m more annoyed, not with the equaliser, but with the chances we had to make the lead heavier.

“Sheffield Wednesday’s brand of football went out the window towards the end and when they started throwing balls forward anything could have happened. That’s what I like about football though – you never know what’s going to happen next.

“He (Mellor) is a big boy to try to knock around in the penalty box and I would have liked my boys to have been a bit tougher in that scenario, but fair play to him he’s an experienced player.”

Ward added: “Our supporters have seen how we’re trying to play today and hopefully they’ve liked what they’ve seen. Everybody who has been at this ground today has hopefully gone away having enjoyed a really good game of football.

“I’m pleased with the way we are playing, but I also want us to be effective and perhaps we haven’t been as effective as we could have been yet because we’ve scored three goals in two league games and not won one yet.

“They print league tables already at this stage of the season and when I look at it tomorrow I’ll see we are mid-table or in the bottom half and be really frustrated.

“As I said, I’ve got mixed feelings. I’m disappointed not to win, but I’m also really, really pleased having watched my team play the way they did. I times I just thought ‘wow, this is really exciting to watch’ and hopefully the fans felt the same.

“I’ve changed a few things and I’m happy with how it’s gone so far, but I don’t want us to become known as a team that plays well but doesn’t win games.”