Colchester United head coach John McGreal was pleased with his side's second-half improvement after they came from behind to draw 1-1 with Grimsby Town.

The U's were not at the races in the first half at the Weston Homes Community Stadium and the Mariners deservedly led through Charles Vernam's strike, eight minutes before the break.

But McGreal sent on attacker Courtney Senior at half-time and switched to four at the back and it made an impact, with Sean Murray's goal just after the break securing them a point.

It leaves Colchester five points off the play-off places in League Two, with 17 games remaining.

McGreal said: "It's a point that keeps us in and around that top seven and it's still all to play for.

"We're going to get these sticky performances and it's how we come through it.

"It was a game of two halves.

"Grimsby did particularly well in the first half - they nailed down their system of play against ours and played off it.

"But then I thought we asked a lot of questions in the second half when we changed it and credit to our boys, because it was a really good performance after half-time.

“We were really poor in the first half and I’ve got no complaints whatsoever about us getting booed off.

“We didn’t perform well but credit to the boys, we made a little bit of a tactical change and I thought our top three got into the game a lot more.

“We added more width to our game and then started asking questions of their defence, which we didn’t do in the first half.

“If we’re going to get beat, we want to get beat the right way and credit to the players, because they gave it a go and got something out of the game."

McGreal was pleased with the performance of youngster Senior, who made an impact off the bench for the second successive game.

He added: "It was an opportunity for him to go out there in the second half and show us what he can do.

"I think his performance rubbed off on another players as well."