Tony Humes felt his Colchester United side thoroughly deserved their point after the U's drew 0-0 with Walsall in his first game in charge.

The U's halted a run of four successive defeats in League One and also kept their first clean sheet of the season, after neither side was able to break the deadlock at the Bescot Stadium.

Humes was pleased with his players' efforts - and felt they might even have taken all three points, had they been a little more clinical in front of goal.

The new U's boss said: "I'm absolutely delighted - the boys put a great shift in.

"I think we thoroughly deserved a point and I think we could have taken three.

"We had a few chances that we haven't really been clinical enough with and didn't have that little bit of belief you need to finish them off.

"But there were some good bits of play and we had a lot of the game and a clean sheet, so I'm absolutely delighted.

"Freddie (Sears) was unlucky to hit the post.

"We took the game to them and we tried to be positive - we pegged them back for long spells of the game.

"We had a fair bit of possession and created a few chances.

"The last bit of the game got a little bit open and it was a bit of a basketball feel to it at the end, with both sides attacking.

"But the pleasing thing about that was that we didn't concede and Sam Walker made his first save on 89 minutes.

"We've worked a bit on tightening things up a bit and they got their rewards for that with the clean sheet.

"We didn't take enough care at times with passes in the mid-third but it's a learning curve for our young players.

"We want them to go and play and it's about decision-making and one extra pass at times might have opened them up a little bit more."

For a five pages of coverage on the U's game at Walsall, see Monday's Daily Gazette,