Colchester United manager Tony Humes says his side's 2-1 win at Port Vale has boosted his players in their battle against relegation from League One.

The U's claimed a crucial victory at Vale Park, after goals from George Moncur and Jacob Murphy proved enough to give them three precious points, despite Louis Dodds' late consolation for the hosts.

Colchester are now four points adrift of safety with seven games remaining, ahead of their home game against Barnsley on Monday.

The U's are now unbeaten in three games and Humes said: “We’ve got seven points from nine now and it gives us that belief that it’s possible we can do it.

“We started slowly and it looked like we hadn’t played for a couple of weeks, unfortunately.

“It took us a while to get into the game and Port Vale caused us a few problems with their pace in behind.

“But we stuck at it and defended well and once we saw out the first 20 minutes, I thought we looked quite comfortable.

“We thought the wider pitch would suit us more than them because of the formation of the team but we didn’t get the ball enough to get it out to our wide players and we didn’t have enough impact on the game.

“Port Vale played through us and behind us but we dealt with what they had to offer and we went in 0-0 at half-time still all to play for.

“I thought we caused them an awful lot of problems in the second half and we played with a bit more urgency and tempo.

“We exploited gaps quite a few times and to score the first goal is a massive thing.

“There have been times this season where we’ve been on top and the opposition have scored, so it was a huge thing to score first.

“Port Vale threw everything at us in the final ten minutes but we stood up to it well and got a fantastic three points."

For five pages of coverage of the U's win at Port Vale, see Monday's Daily Gazette.