DANNY Cowley says his Colchester United players won't be feeling sorry for themselves ahead of tomorrow’s trip to play Accrington Stanley.

The U’s make the long trip up to the Wham Stadium on the back of a number of key decisions going against them, in recent games.

Colchester were left frustrated after Brentford’s winner in the Carabao Cup was allowed to stand, despite Aaron Donnelly appearing to be fouled in the build-up to the goal.

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It followed hot on the heels of the U’s being denied at least two penalties in their 1-0 defeat to Harrogate Town, whose winner also had an element of controversy about it.

Nevertheless, U’s boss Cowley is not dwelling on what has happened and instead is fully focused on trying to secure a first away win of the season.

Cowley said: “If you’re looking for fairness, then don’t look for it in football.

“But it’s not a moment to feel sorry for ourselves; I think we can be pleased with the performance and disappointed with the outcome.

“To be honest, I’m not into valiant defeats, they don’t do anything for me.

“I like to win, I’m used to winning and I expect my teams to win.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

“We haven’t been able to win the last two but we have to take the positives and I think there’s a lot to take, in terms of the level of performance from a lot of individuals and also collectively.

“The most pleasing thing to come out of the Brentford game was that we made as many changes as we did and kind of enforced too, because of the fact that we had to play on the Wednesday and go to Accrington on the Saturday and the ambition in the week is to try to win both games.

“We’ve tried to do it in a way that would allow us to put our focus on the Accrington game and rightly so.

“We’ve been able to give opportunities to some of our young players.

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“Milton (Oni) I thought was incredible, Bradley (Ihionvien) had a really good game, Samson (Tovide), JK (Gordon), for our young players to have the opportunity to play against Premier League players is so good for their development.

“I think we saw a really resilient, determined display, even when things were going against us.

“Credit to everybody and there’s a good feeling in the group.”

Cowley will have plenty of decisions to make this weekend, with the likes of Tom Flanagan, Teddy Bishop and Samson Tovide all aiming to return to the starting line-up at Accrington after being rested against Brentford.

(Image: Richard Blaxall)

“We’ve got a lot of players in good form, which is really great to see,” said Cowley.

“I never see these as problems; the problems for me are only when we don’t have players in form or we have multiple injuries in the same position and we have lack of availability.

“It’s certainly good for us when the boys are putting their hands up and playing well.

“We haven’t quite got what we’ve deserved in the last two games and decisions are going against us for sure but we’re trying not to let that be the narrative, because we’d rather put the energy into what we can affect and control and that’s our performance.

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“We go into Saturday with a real steely determination to put a performance together and get the outcome that that performance warrants.”

Colchester will today face an Accrington side who are yet to taste victory this season under boss John Doolan.

Cowley added: “We watched Accrington play Harrogate and they were the significantly better team.

“I don’t know how Accrington didn’t win that game.

“They were in such control and then Harrogate did what Harrogate do and came back really late on.

“They were also in a really good place against Newport County and they equalised in the 36th, 37th minute and it was all Accrington.

(Image: MIKE EGERTON/PA)

“Half-time probably came at the wrong time for them and in the second half, they were still in a really good place in the game and Newport just went goal, goal from pretty innocuous moments and it just changed the rhythm and ultimately the outcome of the game.

“They have a new manager now – John Coleman is someone we know well and it just felt like he’d been there forever!

“It will be different in that respect but I don’t think much has changed in terms of personnel and players but we know the attributes that Accrington Stanley teams have.

“They’re always hugely competitive, really streetwise, have a lot of young players on the way up and a lot to admire.”