Recent signing Scott Fitzgerald is enjoying life at the heart of Colchester United's defence despite suffering defeat in his latest two outings.

The former Republic of Ireland B international and Millwall captain said: "I am settling in well and thoroughly enjoyed collecting six points in my first two matches.

"And I think we would have gone on and beaten Northampton in this game if we had scored first.

"We certainly enjoyed the lion's share of possession and I thought we played some good stuff, but in the end it was a game of the two penalty areas for us.

"We failed to put away our chances in their box and we probably allowed them too much room at times in ours.

"I didn't think we deserved to lose. We pinned them back on the edge of their area and enjoyed a lot of possession in the second half.

"It was always going to be an uphill struggle once Northampton scored and the game was practically over for us once they scored their second goal."

Fitzgerald was adamant the U's should have had a penalty when Steve McGavin was hauled down in the first half.

He said: "From where I was it looked a definite penalty and I also thought I had cleared Northampton's second goal off the line.

"The lads around me assured me the ball had crossed the line so I've got no grumbles about it."

Fitzgerald also felt the U's missed injured striker Keith Scott up front. He said: "Andy Arnott did a good job in Keith's place, but if you look at Northampton's front three -- Jamie Forrester, Marco Gabbiadini and Steve Howard -- they don't come much better than that."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.