Colchester United head coach John McGreal felt his side were well worth their 1-1 draw at his old club Tranmere Rovers this afternoon.

The U’s had trailed to James Norwood’s first-half opener but stand-in skipper Harry Pell struck an equaliser just before the hour mark, to maintain the U’s unbeaten away record in League Two.

McGreal said: “I thought we were well worthy of the 1-1 draw.

“They came right at us in the first 20 minutes – we went with a 3-5-2 and we had to change it to a flat four.

“But I thought once we changed it, it killed the crowd and we kept possession of the ball and I thought we took the wind out of Tranmere’s sails.

“We had the plan B in the locker and worked on the two shapes during the week, knowing what happened with Luke (Prosser) at the last minute.

“Their goal came at a bit of a wrong time for us and we had to readjust a couple of minutes before half-time.

“But we set the tone in the second half with our possession and territory and I thought we were excellent.

“The performance of the boys was very good and look at young Diaz Wright coming in for his first league start – he was terrific.

“We were missing our captain (Luke Prosser), Tom Lapslie and Brandon Comley and Brennan Dickenson was playing with a tight hamstring but I can’t commend the players enough – they were brilliant for us.”

Colchester were without skipper Luke Prosser, after he was controversially suspended for the game.

Prosser missed the game after it was judged he should have been booked instead of Ryan Jackson in their 3-1 win at Cheltenham Town, last weekend and was then cautioned himself, later in the match.

“We’re absolutely fuming,” said McGreal.

“The rules and regulations are really poor – I’ve had Phil Dowd on the phone at great length the other night, I’ve had John Duncan and Graham Mackerel too, all sympathising with us.

“You have to abide by the laws of the FA and there was no case for an appeal or hearing – it was literally ‘he’s suspended and you have to move on’ whereas the referee gets the chance to referee again.”

McGreal felt Colchester should have had a second-half penalty at Tranmere, after Luke Norris appeared to be dragged back by home captain Stephen McNulty in the area.

McGreal added: “I don’t know whether the referee hasn’t given it thinking the boy’s offside but it’s ricocheted off their own player, he’s gone through and (Stephen) McNulty has pulled him back.

“It’s a red card as well, because he hasn’t gone for the ball.”