COLCHESTER United boss Danny Cowley was delighted with both the result and performance after his side swept Tranmere Rovers aside with a 3-0 victory at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Lyle Taylor's first-half brace and Samson Tovide's goal in the season secured the U's a deserved victory, lifting them up to 11th in the League Two table.
It extended Colchester's unbeaten run in all competitions to five matches and was the perfect response to their disappointing 3-3 draw at Morecambe seven days earlier, where they let a two-goal lead slip late on, against ten men.
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Cowley said: "To win by scoring three goals, by keeping a clean sheet, forwards both scoring means it's a really good day.
“They say a week’s a long time in football and it’s felt like a long time, let me tell you.
“This time last week, we were really disappointed with ourselves and we’ve had to live with that.
“That doesn’t define you – what does define you is how you respond and for us to respond with a win on Tuesday (against MK Dons) and a win today I think says a lot about the character of the group.
“We’ve worked all week for that clean sheet and I make no apology, we close the game down and we really wanted that clean sheet.
“It was a really, honest disciplined performance and I thought we did the basics of the game really well.
“Our defensive intensity, the aggression that we defended with, the focus that we had defensively, I was really pleased with."
It was a special day for the impressive Taylor, who scored the 100th and 101st league goals of his career, which started off under the Cowleys at non-league side Concord Rangers.
"I was really proud of Lyle, I remember him scoring his first and I remember being so proud of him," said Cowley.
READ MORE: Colchester United 3 Tranmere Rovers 0 - as it happened
"To score his 100th league goal in a victory means it's definitely one that we'll remember.
"Lyle scored two goals which is what everyone will be talking about but I'll be talking about his defensive intensity - he pressed, he harried, he chased and him and Samson gave us a real intensity, against the ball.
"Lyle just led by example - I know he doesn't wear the armband but he's a leader for us.
"Lyle and Samson are developing a good relationship, which is really important to us.
"It was another really good ball by Samson (for Taylor's first) and don't think they're easy finishes, because Lyle makes them look easy because he's a quality player.
"We knew they had big threats switching left to right on the diag but we knew that Cameron Norman, their right-back got really high, so we felt in the week that if we dealt with that well, then we'd be able to counter in that space.
"Owura counters into space really well like he showed and that (second) goal was something that we'd worked on.
"For Owura to execute at the speed that he does is really good and I knew Lyle would score, as soon as it fell to him."
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