Colchester United manager John Ward was encouraged by his side’s second-half showing after they came from behind to draw 1-1 with Brentford.

Anthony Wordsworth’s excellent stoppage-time free-kick secured the U’s a point at Griffin Park, after they had fallen behind to Clayton Donaldson’s opener.

Substitute John-Joe O’Toole was sent off for serious foul play with nine minutes to go but Colchester were still able to mount a recovery, something that pleased boss Ward.

Ward said: “We’ve had to really dig in because Brentford are a good team and this is a really good league that we’re involved in.

“We’ve given some good teams some good games and we’ll probably throw away that little Colchester tag a little bit more as we go on trying to get points at clubs like this.

“We have another top-six team in Sheffield United on Saturday but we’ve done well on the road and we’ve done well again tonight.

“We kept going and we improved in the second half.

“The first half wasn’t great for us but the second half gave us more opportunities to find a goal.

“Anthony has provided an absolutely great goal with what was probably our last opportunity and he has that in his locker.”

For a full match report and pictures, see Wednesday’s Gazette.