Colchester boss Danny Cowley said his side’s 1-0 win over promotion contenders Notts County was one of the best victories of his career after seeing their preparations badly hit by illness.
Tyreece Simpson struck the U’s winner in the 43rd minute when he converted from close range after Oscar Thorn had robbed Will Jarvis of possession near the edge of the area.
It sealed a valuable victory for play-off hopefuls Colchester, who have been hit by a virus over the last fortnight which has affected much of their squad.
Cowley said: “It was a brilliant win for us.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of good groups in my managerial career and a lot of good wins, but I can’t remember a better win than that when you consider how much was going against us in the lead up and how many boys who started were probably just 70 or 75 per cent fit.
“For them to put that amount of effort in I thought was remarkable and it was a great win for us.
“We knew it was going to be tough and that we had a few who were playing who weren’t at full tilt.
“Notts County are a very, very good team for sure – look at their attacking prowess.
“They finished the game with (Alassana) Jatta, (David) McGoldrick, Jodi Jones – they have really high quality players but to restrict them to so few chances was testament to our discipline and organisation against the ball.”
County missed the opportunity to close the gap on the top three after losing a game of few chances.
The Magpies’ best opportunity came when Jarvis fired a good chance straight at Matt Macey late on but they struggled to penetrate a solid Colchester defence.
County boss Stuart Maynard said: “It was a really frustrating day at the office.
“I haven’t watched it back but I think for the goal, it looks like there’s a push in the back on Will Jarvis, which ends up in a goal.
“But we should address it, get on it and clear the ball.
“We know we’re playing on a difficult pitch where the ball’s going to bounce up high and change direction in different ways, so we have to address it and deal with it.
“In the first half, they only really got around our box maybe three or four times.
“We were around their box loads but probably didn’t show enough end product and that was the trend of the whole game.
“We’ve come away with a 1-0 loss, which is really frustrating.
“We want to dominate the ball and control the game – we did that enough but I just don’t think we penetrated enough, in the final third.”
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