Dunne upbeat despite defeat

Colchester manager Joe Dunne was pleased with his team's showing despite the 2-0 defeat against Port Vale.

Doug Loft scored a goal in each half on Tuesday night, but the U's - who were playing their first game in 24 days - were unfortunate not to have a goal of their own to shout about after a strong second-half display. The result leaves Colchester sitting just four points above the League One drop zone, but Dunne believes his men will be fine if they match their performance at Vale Park for the rest of the season. He said: "I thought the first 30 minutes showed we had gone over three weeks without a game and Vale got their goal at a bad time for us. "But after that I thought we controlled the rest of the first half and we dominated almost all of the second. We camped in their half but just couldn't score. "Of course we're disappointed with the result, but I'm very encouraged by the performance. If we keep playing like that we will win more games than we lose. "The lads played some terrific football and we created chances. If I have to be critical, it would be because we should have shot rather than passed the ball on quite a few occasions. "But we've still had a lot of efforts on goal and if you looked at the stats I'm sure they would look favourable. "I talked about the threat of Doug Loft in the days before the game, but unfortunately he's scored two goals. You have to give Vale credit because they scored the goals and got plenty of bodies behind the ball to protect their lead."