Colchester United thoroughly deserved their win.

That was the honest assessment of Port Vale manager Neil Aspin, after he saw his side beaten 2-0 at the JobServe Community Stadium.

The Valiants had gone into the match in confident mood, on the back of a 3-0 opening-day triumph over Joe Dunne’s Cambridge United.

But they were comprehensively beaten by the U’s and Aspin admitted they were second best.

He said: “Instead of starting by saying that we were very poor, I’d like to give credit to the opposition – I thought they were very good and caused us a lot of problems and deservedly won the game.

“I think that sometimes, managers don’t give enough credit to the opposition and I thought that Colchester were good and thoroughly deserved their win.

“We did well last week against Cambridge but we weren’t anywhere near that today and if we’re going to pick up points, we have to be like we were last week and much better than we were (against Colchester).

“We got what we deserved which was nothing.

“Last week, we were sharper, competed better, worked hard and tracked runners – we did everything that you need to, to stay in the game before you can eventually get yourself into a position where you can win it.

“But the game was over after 23 minutes and they cut through us too easily.”