Colchester United boss John McGreal on Oldham victory

COLCHESTER United head coach John McGreal was full of praise for his players after they secured a 1-0 victory at Oldham Athletic this afternoon.

Frank Nouble’s well-taken strike just before half-time sealed the U’s all three points at Boundary Park and helped them end a very productive week on a high.

Colchester’s win at Oldham followed their midweek Carabao Cup triumph at Crystal Palace and their maiden league win of the season against Northampton Town, last weekend.

McGreal said: “It’s a great result for us.

“I think we’ve beaten a very good team.

“And as good as Oldham were, I thought defensively we were equally as good.

“We gave them a little bit too much space at times which we knew would happen because of the way they play and the type of system they have.

“But we knew the counter was on and there were a couple of opportunities where we could have scored from that.

“I’ve got to compliment our players, after the week that we’ve had.

“We came home at silly o’clock after the Grimsby game, to then go into the Northampton game, then to win (at Crystal Palace) on Tuesday and then pick ourselves up to travel again yesterday credit to them – I thought they were excellent.

“Sometimes, we all want this free flowing football and stuff like that which the club is renowned for but today was all about a solid defending, determination, grit and getting your blocks in.

“It’s a different way of winning a game of football in division two.”

Colchester defended superbly throughout the 90 minutes to keep a third successive clean sheet.

“I thought we started nice and bright and then they had a couple of attacks where we not sank in a bit but had to sort out Noubs (Frank Nouble) and Nos (Luke Norris) and I thought we did that, not long before we scored actually,” added McGreal.

“We kept to that shape in the second half and I just thought, if they’re going to put the ball into the box the way Easty (Tom Eastman) and Pross (Luke Prosser) were heading the ball and Gerks (Dean Gerken) was I felt a little bit more comfortable, because they weren’t finding the pockets they had in the first half.”