HAYDEN Mullins was full of praise for his Colchester United players after they pushed Birmingham City all the way in the Carabao Cup.

The U's were narrowly beaten 1-0 at St Andrew's, having impressed throughout their first-round tie against their Championship opponents.

Marcel Oakley's 75th-minute deflected strike proved the difference between the two sides in the end but Colchester can count themselves unlucky not to have at least taken the tie to penalties, with Cameron Coxe hitting the woodwork in stoppage-time.

U's head coach Mullins said: "I thought we were very, very good.

"I asked our boys to be positive and said the pressure's on them.

"I wanted us to go on the front foot and attack them with and without the ball and I felt we did that.

"From the first minute, we pressed high, we won the ball, we had lots of energy, we looked a threat - it was a great performance and there were loads of positives to take from it.

"Even right until the end when we hit the crossbar - for me, we were much the stronger team.

"I said to the boys that there's not many teams in our division who would be able to handle what we put out.

"As long as we take the positives from it and use them to our advantage, we'll be OK.

"I think we dominated the whole game and I thought we were really good.

"We set out to win the game and we set up as positive as we could be.

"I think the team selection showed that and I was really happy that we didn't pick up any injuries, because our squad's not really big!

"We've had two tough games.

"We've gone away to Carlisle and we've come to Birmingham and if we'd have ended up drawing, it would have been two clean sheets.

Oakley's powerful shot deflected in off Colchester defender Tom Eastman for Birmingham's winner.

And at the other end in time added on, the U's came a whisker from taking the game to penalties after Coxe hit the bar.

"That's football - sometimes it drops for you and sometimes it doesn't," said Mullins.

"If you take your eye off the ball for half a second, you can get a little kick in the teeth."

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Colchester handed a first start to their new loan signing Sylvester Jasper (pictured above) against Birmingham.

The 19-year-old attacker was impressive throughout and went agonisingly close to scoring just before half-time when his low shot whistled past the far post.

Mullins added: "I thought Syl was good.

"We got him in last Thursday and he hasn't really had too many days with us training.

"We got him on against Carlisle and had a little look at him and we thought we'd have a really good look at him (against Birmingham).

"He's got a lovely delivery on him but the thing that impressed me with him, especially coming out of an academy, is the way he worked for the team out of possession.

"His pressing was really good, he was getting his body in at times and he's a strong boy and he had confidence to go past people and take the game to them, which was really refreshing to see.

"Him and Noah in those positions offered loads of energy for us.

"I asked them to be ball carriers for us and get into areas where they could hurt the opposition and I thought they did that."