BEN Garner saluted his Colchester United players for their pre-season efforts after they claimed victory over League One newcomers Leyton Orient in their final friendly this afternoon.
The U’s won 2-1 at the JobServe Community Stadium thanks to an own goal from Rob Hunt and Connor Hall’s strike, with Charlie Pegrum’s second-half penalty proving only a consolation for Richie Wellens’ side.
Orient played the final 35 minutes of the game with only ten men after half-time substitute Theo Archibald was booked twice in a matter of seconds by referee David Rock and U’s boss Garner felt the dismissal was detrimental for both teams.
READ MORE: Impressive U's see off Leyton Orient in final pre-season friendly
Garner said: “I thought 11 v 11, it was really good.
“We just dropped off against ten and it ruined the game really.
“For a pre-season friendly, I’m not sure why he sent the lad (Theo Archibald) off.
“Both managers would have preferred to have kept 11 players out on the pitch to get out from it what we need.
“That spoiled it a little bit but we have to concentrate on us and up until that point, it was a really good performance.
“We went a little bit loose against ten after the sending off and it spoilt the tempo of the game for both teams.
“But I’m not going to be too critical of the players – there were some really strong performances in there and a really pleasing pre-season overall, as a package from day one.
“We’re in a good place and the important thing is now that the competitive games start next week.”
Both of Colchester’s goals came from set pieces, with Noah Chilvers providing the delivery on both occasions.
Garner said: “Set-pieces will be key in the season.
“If we can be a positive goal difference from set pieces, that will be a huge difference in where we finish in the league.
“We want to score from all types of situations.
“We want open-play goals and we had some good opportunities today in which to do so.
“But it was a nice to get goals from set pieces as well.”
READ MORE: Colchester United v Leyton Orient - as it happened
Colchester are now gearing up for the new League Two season, after what has been a productive pre-season.
The U’s have lost only one of their friendlies and their four new signings have all settled in well to their new surroundings.
“The players have worked really hard in pre-season,” said Garner.
“They’ve taken a lot of information on, there’s been a lot of detail in the work and you can see that in some of the play now.
“Credit to them with how much they’ve taken it on; they’ve shown good bravery and courage with the way that we’re playing and there was a lot of really pleasing elements in the performance.
“The important thing now is that we take that into the league games and cup fixtures and win as many of these games in August as we can.”
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