DANNY Cowley was pleased with his side's 'gritty and determined' performance after Colchester United came from behind to beat MK Dons 2-1 in their Bristol Street Motors Trophy group opener.

Goals from Fiacre Kelleher and Anthony Scully cancelled out Stephen Wearne's first-half opener for Dons, as a much-changed U's side claimed victory at the JobServe Community Stadium.

Colchester had a number of young players in their squad including 15-year-old Lennox Emery on the bench, as boss Cowley made 11 changes to his side.

Cowley said: "We love this competition.

READ MORE: Match report as Colchester see off MK Dons in BSM Trophy

"I always think footballers are a bit like dogs - a dog needs a run and players just need a run sometimes!

"We wanted to take the competition seriously and we have a lot of faith in our squad and in our young players.

"A lot of our young players at the moment are out on loan.

"It was great to have young Harrison (Chamberlain) on the bench and young Lennox (Emery) and Alfie (Bendle) making his debut.

"All in all, I thought it was a really gritty, determined performance and a good victory."

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

Colchester had to dig deep to claim the points in their Group E opener, after falling behind after 34 minutes.

"It was a really hard-fought win," added Cowley.

"We played an MK Dons team that was nearly full strength.

"We made a lot of changes so that doesn't make it easy at all and lots of boys that hadn't played for quite some time, people like Tom Smith, who I thought did great.

"There were quite a few debuts, a few new partnerships and relationships and we had to dig in.

READ MORE: Colchester United 2 MK Dons 1 - as it happened

"You're always going to have periods without the ball against MK Dons, because they overload you in certain areas of the pitch.

"But I thought for all of their possession in the first half, they only had two shots on target.

"They scored from one of those and then we scored from a penalty, which didn't look clearcut but we've had quite a lot go against us.

"It gave us the equaliser and then I thought second half, we played with more intensity and more aggression and belief and were much better."

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

Cowley was pleased to see defender Kelleher mark his return to action following a knee injury with a goal and a man of the display.

He added: "It was a great goal.

"I always love those goals - scruffy, scrappy, horrible goals.

"He didn't give up on it. He won the first contact, the ball bounced and it was just pure will and determination.

"The boy's got a good personality and we were well pleased for him."