COLCHESTER United head coach Danny Cowley was pleased with the character of his players following their 1-1 draw at League One side Leyton Orient in their Bristol Street Motors Trophy group game.

Ben Goodliffe's 79th-minute equaliser cancelled out Zech Obiero's first-half opener for the O's at Brisbane Road, to ensure a much-changed U's team a share of the spoils and a point apiece in Southern Group E.

The O's won 4-2 on spot-kicks to claim the extra point, leaving Colchester in second place in the table on four points behind leaders Arsenal under-21s, whom they host at the JobServe Community Stadium in their final group game next month.

READ MORE: Match report after U's draw with Leyton Orient in EFL Trophy

U's boss Cowley said: "It was a really hard-fought performance by the group.

"You come to a good League One team like Orient without Lyle Taylor, Tom Flanagan, Matt Macey, Ellis Iandolo, Teddy Bishop, Owura Edwards, Jamie McDonnell, Aaron Donnelly, it's going to be pretty tough.

"But I thought we showed real character and really good fight and we were well worthy of the draw and of course, penalties are a lottery as we know.

"We were really pleased with our first 25 minutes - I thought we had a really good way into the game.

"We had some good moments ourselves offensively and had good control and then probably in the three or four minutes leading up to their goal, we just made a few technical errors and lost the ball in places where we didn't want to lose the ball and that gave them a head of steam.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

"Then they scored and I think that gave them momentum and energy in the game and those few minutes after the goal, we didn't get quite right either.

"But we were able to regain our composure and had a good ending to the first half and in the second half, I thought we did really, really well considering that was pretty much their full team, at the end of the game and we had a number of players out.

"I was really proud of the players' efforts."

The introduction of Arthur Read and Fiacre Kelleher off the bench for Colchester just after the hour made a difference, with their equaliser coming 16 minutes later.

Cowley added: "We went to a back four and it allowed us to have one more player on the press.

READ MORE: Leyton Orient 1 Colchester United 1 - as it happened

"I thought the subs came on and did really well, which is really helpful.

"We'd have liked to have played Kells (Fiacre Kelleher) from the beginning but we're just being conservative with him at the moment which from the medical guidance I'm getting, is the right thing to do.

"We really want to do well in this competition and want to be successful in it but we can't take big risks in games in terms of injuring players, particularly after the run of games that we've had in this early part of the season.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

"We tried to pick the players that were the safest picks physically, if that makes sense and at 60 minutes, we were able to freshen it up and go to a back four, which allowed us to get an extra player on the press, which I thought kind of turned the game.

"Credit to the players that came on and the ones that played through, because there were boys like Anthony Scully who played their first 90 for a long time.

"We didn't anticipate leaving Samson (Tovide) out there for that long but he was so in the game and he's a really difficult player to take off, for obvious reasons."