COLCHESTER United head coach Ben Garner felt his side deserved more from their 1-0 defeat to Stockport County.

The U's were beaten at the JobServe Community Stadium in Garner's first game in charge, after Kyle Wootton's first-half header proved enough to seal the promotion-chasing Hatters all three points.

It was Colchester's fourth successive defeat and one that leaves them six points above the League Two relegation zone with ten games remaining but new boss Garner believes their performance merited a draw.

Garner said: “There was nothing in the game really.

“I thought it was really tight and on balance, we deserved a point which I think would have been fair.

“They’re a strong side going well in the play-offs and there wasn’t much in the game at all, which is pleasing in the long term.

“But we’re obviously disappointed not to take something away from the game.

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“I think we actually had some good chances and credit to them, they defended really well.

“They’ve had some really good blocks in there where we’ve had good opportunities and even the one at the end with Noah Chilvers’ effort, I think it’s actually hit Hops (Tom Hopper) on the way in and had every chance of going in.

“We needed a little bit of lady luck or a little bit of quality just to go in but in terms of the effort and endeavour from the players, very, very good and I thought we were the better side in the second half.

“We were the ones pushing and deserved to take something from the game.”

Colchester have now gone eight and a half hours without scoring a goal, after they drew another blank against Stockport.

The Hatters had not scored in their previous three games before beating the U's but Garner said he could not fault the attitude of his players, despite the result.

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He said: "They'd been in a similar position and it's a set piece that has decided the game.

"Our quality from set pieces needs to be at a better level.

"We wasted too many deliveries and we didn't give ourselves opportunities from them.

"That's something to look at and tidy up this week but there were lots of positives in there and the intensity and attitude of the players was excellent.

"There were moments of quality and moments of good play and that's plenty for us to build on."