JOE Dunne has played a vital role alongside Wayne Brown over recent weeks, following their appointment as Colchester United's interim coaching team.

Dunne, alongside academy boss Dave Huzzey, has been key in helping Brown in his attempts to try and lift the U's away from the League Two relegation zone.

However, the former U's player and manager was missing from the technical area for the club's crucial 1-0 triumph over Port Vale, on Saturday.

And U's interim boss Brown revealed Dunne has been under the weather, leading to him missing the game.

"Joe Dunne's not well so we decided to keep him away from the environment," said Brown.

"That was the best thing for the squad really."

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Colchester boosted their League Two survival hopes with a 1-0 win over Port Vale.

Tom Dallison's header proved the difference between the two sides, at the JobServe Community Stadium.

The victory leaves Colchester five points above the relegation zone, with 11 games to go.

It was a hard-fought win for Colchester against a play-off chasing Vale side who saw their nine-game unbeaten run ended.

Brown said: “We knew it was going to be a tough game.

“We had a plan of action to give us the best chance of winning the game of football.

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“I’m sure there would have been people in the stadium who would have thought ‘do you know what, a point is not bad’, with 15 minutes to go.

“But it was one of those where we needed to keep the belief.

“We were shouting as loud as we could to the lads on the pitch to be disciplined, keep their shape and the chances will come and effectively they did thankfully."

Dallison's headed winner came from a Noah Chilvers corner, something that pleased Brown.

Brown added: "We're a threat from set plays and we've scored a few now, since we've been in.

"It's something that we can capitalise on, after getting into good areas."