MATTY Etherington praised the 'heart and desire' of his players after he claimed victory in his first game in interim charge of Colchester United.

Etherington, who was appointed as the U's temporary boss on Monday following Ben Garner's dismissal, led them to a 3-2 victory at Grimsby Town to end a run of four successive league defeats and help them climb out of the League Two relegation zone.

Goals from Arthur Read, Zach Mitchell and Joe Taylor helped Colchester secure a much-needed victory at Blundell Park and Etherington was pleased with the commitment of his players.

READ MORE: Match report as Colchester get back to winning ways at Grimsby

Etherington said: "You can go through all of the tactical stuff and yes, it is important but heart and desire, especially in the position that we're in right now, is the most important thing.

"I think they showed that in abundance with blocks and tackles.

"The effort that they put into that performance was nothing short of brilliant.

"It was full of guts and that was the most important thing.

"Overall, it was a really morale-boosting performance and the players should hopefully take loads from that."

Gazette:

Colchester had fallen behind in the seventh minute in bizarre circumstances when Will Greenidge's long backpass was headed up into the air by goalkeeper Owen Goodman and them squirmed into the net.

Etherington said: "It's taken a deflection and I could see the spin on the ball.

"For me, it's got nothing to do with Owen; it's bounced up, it's spun, he's taken a touch with his head.

"There's not a lot he can do about that and I think it would be really harsh to blame him.

READ MORE: Grimsby Town 2 Colchester United 3 - as it happened

"There was an awful lot of spin on that ball and it was just unfortunate.

"He then makes a brilliant save at 1-0 and tips it onto the post and then we got a foothold in the game.

"I thought we were really good and played some really good stuff but that save from Owen at 1-0 was really important."

But Colchester got back into the game three minutes later through Taylor, who finished clinically from a pass from the impressive Read.

Gazette:

"I thought Arthur Read was outstanding tonight," said Etherington.

"It's easy to see that the club have missed him, while he's been out.

"It was a top quality finish by Joe Taylor and it was good to be back in the game and get a foothold."

Colchester then went ahead just after the half hour when Read's corner went in off Mitchell, from close range.

"You could say Zach's goal was fortuitous as was Ready's goal but the players deserved that tonight," said Etherington.

READ MORE: Matty Etherington placed in temporary charge at Colchester

Grimsby were level at 2-2 early in the second half through Donovan Wilson's tidy finish.

But Read bagged what proved to be Colchester's winner midway through the second half with a deflected 20-yard strike.

"They started with a back three and then changed to a back four and it kind of threw us; they were on top of us and the crowd were on top of us," said Etherington.

"We had to weather the storm and Ready gets a little deflection on his shot but we'll take that, with the position that we're in at the minute.

"It really galvanized the players in the end and to be fair, the game really petered out and they didn't really have a threat."