We didn't look like conceding a goal

"I don't think it was a great spectacle, but it is something we have to get used to and overcome," the Colchester boss said after the game, adding: "I'm getting a it fed up with teams coming here and trying to stop us playing.

"We have to keep the belief in what we do but it was disappointing we didn't create more. We didn't really get going in the second half and it was all really stop start. But we have another point, we are up to 52 points now and we want more."

Steve Cotterill has continued to talk about keeping it tight at the back, and not giving soft goals away, and so preventing Colchester from getting a goal was something that pleased him. "I am delighted with the clean sheet. I thought we looked solid and didn't look like conceding a goal," he said.

"With their home form we knew it was a difficult place to come and get a result and maybe, had a couple of things fallen our way, we could have even had a penalty. But at the risk of repeating myself we don't get them."

He was also pleased for the fans who had turned out in numbers again despite the current run of results. "We had some great support down here today," he commented. "To come all the way to Colchester with the run we are on, they deserve a massive pat on the back and we are glad to send them back with half a decent result."

On the team selection and the subsequent injuries he continued: "Wayne Thomas has tweaked his knee whilst Chris McCann has gone over on his ankle making a block tackle. We won't know the severity of the injuries yet but both players are pretty sore and we'll just have to see how they are later in the week.

"I thought long and hard about the team selection. Sometimes you pick players on what you know they can do and now what they are actually doing at the time. I just feel at the moment, and going back quite a few weeks now, there are players I should have left out of the team on the back of some indifferent performances.

"If you do that you can sometimes ruin their confidence more, while sticking with them can make them worse, but because of the size of the squad I always have that dilemma. It is always an issue and the squad size is something that needs to be looked at."

Jon Harley was the player left out following Tuesday's defeat to Leicester and the manager said about the left back: "When I told Jon he wasn't playing he trained fantastically well as if the burden had been lifted from him. Steve Jones is another of those players I am talking about and trying to play these players through it ends up being to their detriment, my detriment and the club's detriment.

"We are trying to rectify that and if we can get ourselves a more competitive squad then things might get better in the long term. There is a bigger picture here, but we still need immediate results. Without a short term plan there is never a long term plan, and our short term plan is to get better and get three points. In the long term, it is to be better wholly as a club."