WAYNE Brown insists Colchester United can take plenty of heart from their display at Bristol Rovers, in their ongoing League Two survival battle.

The U's four-game unbeaten run came to an end at the Memorial Stadium, after they lost 1-0 to Joey Barton's promotion-chasing side.

Colchester restricted one of the division's most prolific teams to few opportunities, with Elliot Anderson's fine individual strike proving the difference between the two sides.

The U's themselves registered nine shots - three of which were on target - with Tom Eastman's second-half header that was cleared off the line the closest they came to breaching the Rovers defence.

Brown said: “We had nine shots on goal, they had ten, away to Bristol Rovers.

“We had nine chances, three of which were good chances but we just lacked that little bit of quality in the final third.

“We had headers cleared off the line, good chances in the six-yard box that we didn’t convert and many, many other opportunities to get the ball into the box with a little bit of quality which was lacking.

“But listen, I can’t be too harsh on the lads because they’ve done everything that we’ve asked them.

“They’ve had ten shots, four of which were on target, two of which were outside the box.

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“Coming away to somewhere like Bristol Rovers where they do create chances in abundance and have hammered teams this year by a number of goals, to restrict them to very few opportunities, you have to give credit to the group, because they did that really well.

“We can take a lot of heart from the performance, the way that we were structured, the way that we hard to beat and we’ve got to take that into what’s going to be another tough game against Forest Green Rovers, on Monday."

Colchester prepared for their game at the Memorial Stadium with a stint at Bristol City's nearby training ground.

The U's under-23s were also in action in the city yesterday, taking on City's youngsters in a Professional Development League Two match which the hosts won 3-1.

Brown added: “It was a real good couple of days’ prep and the chairman (Robbie Cowling) has been great, in the backing that he’s given us.

“There was an overnight stay and a training facility at Bristol City, which was spot on so we can’t argue with the prep.

“It’s just frustrating that we couldn’t reward him with any points but it’s the game."