Colchester United head coach John McGreal said substitute Sammie Szmodics made the difference after the forward came off the bench to secure a point for his side at Cambridge United.

The U's drew 1-1 at the Abbey Stadium and are now three points off the play-off positions in League Two, after Szmodics netted late on to secure a share of the spoils.

Szmodics has been out since December with an ankle injury and made a big impact, eight minutes after coming on as a substitute to cancel out Gerry McDonagh's first-half opener for Cambridge.

McGreal said: "It's been a long time waiting for Smodz to come back but I just thought he made a little bit of a difference.

"I sensed it was coming and we changed it to try and get the equaliser and try and win the game.

"We keep saying that we're looking for people to get on the end of balls into the box - Dicko has put in a couple of great balls again and asked the question and today, we've got the answers.

"Macca had a goal ruled out that was possibly offside, Sam's gone in and got the goal for us so hopefully we get the rewards from the things that we've worked on in training.

"The subs came on and affected the game and Sammie has scored for us.

"We're pleased that we got a good goal and a good point.

"They train ever so hard every day and if you look at the performances, you can count on one hand where they haven't done themselves justice.

"We dominated possession in the first half without having that clinical edge and we did that again a little bit in the second half.

"It was a disappointing goal to concede - it was second phase, it was cleared, then we've gone to close the ball down, we've turned our backs, the ball has come into the box and he (McDonagh) is free back post.

"It was disappointing but overall, I'm really pleased with the point that we've come away with."