Colchester United manager Tony Humes refused to be drawn on the reasons for George Moncur's absence from his starting line-up following their 0-0 draw with Oldham Athletic tonight.

The former West Ham United midfielder, who had started the U's first three league and cup games of the season, was not even on the bench for the U's game against the Latics and was replaced in the starting line-up by Sammie Szmodics.

Humes said: "George wasn't available for tonight and that's all that needs to be said.

"We just have to respect the position that George is in at this moment in time and that's all that needs to be said.

"That's the position that we're in.

"Hopefully we can expect George back for Saturday - he's part of this football club and we'll have to see on that.

"We just have to respect what's going on and that's the position we're in."

Humes was disappointed his Colchester side were unable to find a winner against Oldham.

“We’ll take a point but it would have been nice to have got three," said Humes.

“It was a tight game from start to finish and there weren’t many chances in the game.

“We didn’t create a lot of chances in the first half but we were better in the second half.

“We got Sammie Szmodics further up the pitch in the second half and that caused them a few problems.

“It was a tight and nervy game and the pleasing thing was that it was a solid display.

“For most of the game we looked compact as a unit and that was a positive.

“We had good chances but we just didn’t take them."

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