DANNY Cowley was pleased with the result and the performance after Colchester United advanced to the knockout stages of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

The U's swept aside Arsenal under-21s 3-0 in their final Southern Group E game to clinch a home tie in the next stage of the competition, after finishing top of the group.

It was a comprehensive all-round performance by Colchester in front of a crowd of more than 4,000, at the JobServe Community Stadium.

READ MORE: Match report as Colchester United see off Arsenal under-21s

U's head coach Cowley said: "It was a good win and a good performance.

"To score three goals and keep a clean sheet is a good feeling against a side that had beaten Orient and drawn with MK Dons.

"They've got good players and are a good team, so I think that tells you the level of performance.

"For us, off the back of scoring late and taking a point at Barrow, to get the win was really good.

"We knew that we wanted to get right up against them, get pressure on the ball and play with intensity and we did all of those things.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

"I was pleased with the intensity and aggression that we played with.

"I thought we were able to get real pressure on the ball against some really technically good young players.

"We used the ball well and looked after the ball well and that allowed us to keep the fuel and the energy to press for the 90-plus minutes.

"They've got some really good young players but it's really hard to be a professional footballer and we wanted to show them how hard it is and I think we did that.

"There were more than 4,000 at the game which was incredible, so thank you to all of supporters who came."

READ MORE: Colchester United 3 Arsenal under-21s 0 - as it happened

Goals from Tom Hopper and Harry Anderson put Colchester in charge, at half-time before Mandela Egbo polished off the hosts' victory with a fine finish, late on.

Cowley said: "It was excellent from Oscar (Thorn) for the first goal - he took the space in behind their full-back, was able to get his head up and find Hops, who produced a really good finish and I thought gave the team so much intensity.

"When your spearhead works as hard as he does, it's such an infectious quality.

"It was a trademark Harry Anderson finish and I've seen him score a lot of those goals.

"He was meant to be playing on the left wing, so I don't know what he was doing playing on the right!

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

"It was a really good finish.

"Manny's was a great team goal, because of the pressure we got on the ball to force the mistake, which was really good.

"They ask a lot of questions of you, the Arsenal defence, because they are so brave in their build in the first line, bringing all their players down.

"We wanted to go after them - this is our home and we wanted to get the game on our terms and I thought we did that.

"That goal really typified our performance.

"It was a good pressure, turnover from Manny and then he drove with a great finish with the outside of his foot."