Danny Cowley hailed a “brilliant night” for Colchester after they knocked League One Reading out of the Carabao Cup.
The U’s won 4-3 on penalties with goalkeeper Matt Macey saving two spot-kicks after the first-round tie had finished 2-2 after 90 minutes.
Tom Hopper and Jack Payne had put Colchester ahead in the first half before second-half goals from Charlie Savage and Lewis Wing took it to penalties.
Cowley said: “It was a brilliant night for our football club.
“It was a really good performance – front foot, aggressive, we played with energy, intensity, played with a lot of enthusiasm.
“I thought we were excellent tonight and I think we had six under-21 year olds on the pitch.
“We felt short-changed at half-time only to be 1-0 up because we had such dominance.
“I said at the end of the game that I knew we’d win the penalty shoot-out because we had the best goalkeeper and he made two great saves.
“But for the young players to step up with the conviction that they did as a good way to round off an excellent night for us.”
Reading boss Ruben Selles said: “Colchester were the better team for the first 60 minutes.
“The goal from Charlie Savage completely changed the complexion of the game.
“There were some good performances today and some players that need to keep learning and learn you have to perform when it’s a friendly match and when it’s the pressure of points or a competition.
“We know where we are; we wanted to be in the next round but we also know that we need to protect some players, so unfortunately, we didn’t make it.”
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