HAYDEN Mullins admits he was disappointed his Colchester United side did not claim all three points, following their goal-less draw at Bradford City.

After the Bantams had dominated the early exchanges the U’s finished strongly at the Utilita Energy Stadium and had opportunities to secure victory.

Cole Skuse and Alan Judge both went close and Freddie Sears was denied in stoppage-time by goalkeeper Sam Hornby, who handled outside of his penalty area in doing so but avoided punishment from the referee.

The result leaves Colchester, who have lost just twice in their last nine games in all competitions, sitting 18th in League Two.

U’s boss Mullins said: “We’re disappointed that we didn’t nick a win.

“It was a long day and we got started a little bit slowly.

“But I felt we grew into the game in the first half and in the second half, we looked so comfortable.

“We showed loads of character and loads of resolve.

“We had to weather the storm; we know they’re a good side.

“They were at home and they really wanted to force the tempo.

“It seemed like we couldn’t really get a foothold in the game; there were a lot of second balls and balls into our channel and we couldn’t really pick up the second ball and really look after it.

“We talked about having more belief and imposing our game on them.

“With the run that we’ve been on and how we’ve been playing, we’ve been playing with confidence.

“I felt we did that in the second half a lot better; we wanted the ball in the area and in better areas.

“I didn’t think we were a constant threat all game but we carved out some really, really good chances.

“They were clearcut and that’s why we were a little bit disappointed we didn’t nick the win with Freddie going through in that fashion and Alan Judge, as well.

“Even Cole Skuse at the end, where his shot has just missed the post.

“It was a solid performance and a good point on the road.”

Gazette:

Sears was denied by Hornby late on, after being sent through by Skuse.

Hornby handled outside his area but referee Marc Edwards failed to penalise the Bradford keeper.

Mullins said: “Down there, you don’t really get a good view and you’re pitch level but I thought it was a penalty.

“Freddie (Sears) sees him and almost tries to head it and then go and shoot where he could have maybe lifted it over him or played it around him.

“It was another really good chance.”

Mullins made a bold call late in the first half, making a tactical switch and sending on Brendan Wiredu for Sylvester Jasper.

Mullins added: “We were quite sloppy with what we were doing and we gave a lot of balls away under no real pressure and didn’t make the right decisions in their half.

“We felt like we needed to make a change to give us a little bit more presence on the pitch and I think it settled us down with the tweak in formation.

“We wanted to try and get the change done quite quickly, because we felt that it was an area of the pitch where we needed to try and tie up a little bit.

“We didn’t really get hold of it in the middle of the pitch in the opening 20 minutes and Brendan gave us that little bit more battling side and stability that we needed.

“We pushed Noah (Chilvers) out to a wider area which we felt really helped give us a lot of energy out there as well.”