Sean Murray admitted that he and his Colchester United team-mates failed to produce, during the first half of Saturday’s 1-1 home draw against Grimsby.

But Murray’s 47th minute equaliser, prompted by the inspired introduction of substitute Courtney Senior, ensured a much-improved second-half display.

“We obviously came off at half-time not feeling happy with the way we had played. We had to realise what we were doing wrong,” confessed Murray.

“The gaffer (John McGreal) changed the formation and made a substitution, and we came out for the second half with a different attitude to the game.

“We were a lot more positive and people wanted to get on the ball more. That showed in the second half with us getting the goal and also creating a lot of other chances.

“We needed a word with each other at half-time, I think that’s good for the team.

“But we never stopped being positive, which is important. We listened to what was said at half-time and we did it.”

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With reference to Senior’s introduction as an attacking substitute, at the start of the second half, Murray said: “Courtney came on and made a difference.

“Courtney’s done this before. He came on at Wycombe (previous weekend) and had an impact. That’s what you are going to get from him, a positive performance, dribbling at players and taking players on, which I think is what we needed going forward. It’s all very positive for him.

“He was the one to set up my goal with some good play. It came to the edge of the box and I just smashed it. Luckily, it went into the top corner of the net rather than into the stand.

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“Scoring goals is an important part of my game. I’ve always said I need to add more goals to my game, to keep my place in the team.

“We had a few chances. Drey (Wright) had one that was close, and it could have gone either way.

“The first-half was a strange one. You have games like that, sometimes, but luckily we didn’t argue with each other and we were only 1-0 down. Sam (Walker) has been brilliant all season. We just needed to have a talk and figure out what had gone wrong.”