Colchester United head coach John McGreal was pleased with the character his side showed in recovering to beat Blackpool 3-2.

Chris Porter scored twice and Sammie Szmodics also netted, as the U's came from behind to win at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

Colchester had produced a below-par first-half display and had fallen behind to Armand Gnanduillet's opener.

But Tarique Fosu's arrival as a second-half substitute made an impact and despite Brad Potts' grabbing a late goal for the visitors, the U's held out to move up to fifth in League Two.

McGreal said: "It was a strong win for us today, especially going a goal down.

"When you think about our result last week and the fact that we went 1-0 down at home, it just shows you the strength of character of the boys and their desire to go and get the three points.

"They're competitive and they play the ball around and they have a handful of a lad, up top.

"We've dealt with it particularly well in the second half and I think we just deserved to get the win.

"I thought that we started OK but they just got a foothold with their goal, which was a poor goal for us to give away.

"But then we scored a great goal and we felt as though we had to make a change at half-time.

"It gave us a bit of impetus and I thought that Tarique (Fosu) performed really well.

“We took more responsibility in the second half and the change we made with Tarique coming on made a difference for us.

“It was a commanding number nine performance from Chris (Porter) and he deserved his man of the match award.

"The most important thing for Chris though is getting the three points for the team and he is a team player."