JUBILANT Colchester United head coach John McGreal praised the character of his side after they scored a late, late winner to win 1-0 at Cambridge United.

Kane Vincent-Young struck in the sixth minute of stoppage-time to claim the U's three hugely deserved points in front of nearly 1,200 of their fans, at the Abbey Stadium.

The win ended a three-match losing run for Colchester and lifted them to within a point of the play-off positions in League Two, with six games remaining.

McGreal said: “It was a fantastic finish and it was what we deserved overall, over the 90 minutes.

“We came with an intent on how we want to do it on how we wanted to perform.

“The pressure was right on and we’re not getting away from that – that was the case with the boys from Monday onwards with maybe not the performances but the results, of late.

“We’ve worked ever so hard to be in and around it all season and that was the chat before the game.

“We’ve put in a really good away performance.

“We missed some chances in the first half and we came into the second thinking if we’re going to come off it.

“But I have to thank the fans for that, because from minute one right the way through to the 95th minute they kept us going and they need to be applauded for that."

Colchester had dominated the contest and had carved out numerous opportunities, throughout the 90 minutes.

Luke Norris, Sammie Szmodics, Frankie Kent and Abo Eisa had all come close to scoring for the U's, prior to Vincent-Young's stoppage-time winner.

McGreal added: “When the last one misses through Szmods I thought that was possibly it but again we showed character with our left-back getting to the edge of the box, knowing that it was an important game.

“I looked at the watch and it was 92 or 93 minutes but Ben (Stevenson) started the attack off wide, the ball came into Mika (Mandron) who protects us brilliantly well and Kano came from the left-back position to the edge of the box.

“It was possibly one of the hardest chances we’ve had all afternoon but he was able to put it in the top corner.

“There were a few bobbles on the pitch in certain areas but he was able to control it and put it into the roof of the net.

“It was a terrific end to a really good performance.”