John Ward praised his Colchester United players for keeping their discipline at Charlton Athletic tonight.

The U's were left aggrieved after striker Steven Gillespie controversially had a 64th-minute striker ruled out by referee Darren Sheldrake, at the Valley.

The Surrey official initially performed a U-turn and allowed the goal to stand.

But after consulting the fourth official he reversed his decision once again and gave a drop ball on the edge of the area.

Bradley Wright-Phillips went on to score Charlton's winner with 12 minutes to go but boss Ward hailed his players' discipline, in the face of adversity.

Ward said: “I'm just really pleased with the way that my team handled it.

“They kept their discipline and their organisation.

“You're in danger of not only having that goal chalked off but also of losing a player through another decision or a foul.

“That could have happened in the final 15 or 20 minutes or so but we kept our heads and I'm really proud of the players for doing that.

“We finished the game correctly with 11 men and kept our standards, which was very important to me.

“We've no idea what would happened had the goal been allowed to stand.

“The game would have kicked off and it would have taken a totally different course to the one it did take.

“The only thing we can tell is what did happen and it's amazed me that a referee can anticipate a decision that he thinks might be occurring.”

Ward confirmed that he will submit his report on the referee's performance.

“I'll right my report like I do for every match and it's my right to do so,” said the U's boss.

“I will say what I think and put my phone number on it and see if anybody gives me a call – that's all I can do about it.

“It won't change the result though and had this game been Chelsea or Liverpool, we would never hear the last of it.

“Because it's Charlton versus Colchester, it will just get dismissed among all of the other football matches tonight and no-one will pay any consequence to the decision, the result or the game because it's League One.”

The Gazette requested to speak to Mr Sheldrake after the game but he declined the opportunity to comment.

For a full match report and more on the U's game at Charlton Athletic, see Wednesday's Gazette.