COLCHESTER United head coach Danny Cowley has praised the reaction of club captain Tom Flanagan after he was left out of their starting line-up.

Having started each of the U’s opening 11 League Two games this season following his summer arrival from Shrewsbury Town, the centre-back has found himself on the substitutes bench for the club’s last two matches against Salford City and Chesterfield.

Former Sunderland and MK Dons defender Flanagan, along with fellow experienced centre-half Fiacre Kelleher, has been left out of late in favour of Ben Goodliffe and Aaron Donnelly.

However, boss Cowley says their reaction to be omitted from the side has been exemplary.

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Cowley said: “For us, it’s always to pick what is in front of us.

“Tom is an incredibly experienced player.

“He’s been very, very good for the dressing room and he’s a player who is well respected by the group.

“I put Fiacre Kelleher in exactly the same conversation and both of them are model professionals, with the way they conduct themselves.

“I said to the whole group after the (Chesterfield) game that you know when you’re a good group, because you have Lyle (Taylor), Kells and Flan on the bench.

(Image: RICHARD BLAXALL)

“The way that they conducted themselves and the way that they helped the younger players before the game and helped the team to prepare sets just the very best example.

“When you’re in a club like this and you have so many young players in the building, the way that the senior players behave is so important, because they set the standard of what it’s like to be a professional footballer.

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“They’ll have all been big enough and ugly enough and lived enough football to have had this individual disappointment in the past and they learn how to frame it and how to deal with it and not to let it grow too big and let it affect the group.

“They’re all really good characters.

“Sometimes, even the more experienced ones need to come out and take a breath, to come back stronger and that’s sometimes just what it is.

“None of these decisions get made lightly.”