Colchester United manager, John McGreal, believed that his side were the better team and did not deserve to lose at Grimsby Town last night.

The U’s dominated but were left facing only a fourth defeat in their last 16 matches, by Sam Jones’ 43rd minute winner.

But despite the defeat, McGreal was very upbeat about his side’s overall display.

“I thought that by-and-far-away we were the better team,” insisted McGreal.

“From the outset, we had a couple of good shots, hitting the post and forcing their keeper into a good save, early on.

“We then conceded a goal to a sucker punch, but we continued to get into some very good areas and to ask questions of our strikers and our midfielders, from 12 yards out, but they are questions that still need to be answered.

“To come away with nothing is very disappointing. I thought we played very well, and more or less dominated the game.

“Overall, I’m bitterly disappointed with the result, after what was one of our best performances for a while.

“We penned them back in the second half, and moved our personnel around,” added McGreal.

The U’s manager had high praise for U’s man-of-the-match Tarique Fosu, who rattled the post after just two minutes.

“I thought that Tarique (Fosu) was excellent for us,” confirmed McGreal.

“He got in some lovely holes, behind Chris Porter, and was a constant threat to Grimsby’s defence.

“It was just unfortunate that Tarique could not get the goal that his performance deserved.

“However, I’m not too down-beat. We should be able to take this performance into Saturday’s game at Cambridge, and take great heart from it.

“Considering we have had six or seven games this month, and with all the injuries that we have picked up, I can’t fault the lads on this performance.

“Obviously their goal was disappointing. Garvs (Owen Garvan) lost possession and Cameron (James) dived in when he could have stood his ground,” added McGreal

The U’s have dropped a couple of places to ninth in the table, and are now two points adrift of the play-offs.