DANNY Cowley praised Colchester United’s spirit both on and off the pitch after they rescued a point against Bradford City.

Jamie McDonnell struck in the ninth minute of stoppage-time to help the U’s claim a 1-1 draw, after they had trailed for much of the game to Andy Cook’s 30th-minute strike.

Colchester’s home fans stayed behind their side throughout the League Two clash at the JobServe Community Stadium and head coach Cowley said their late, late equaliser was reward for the supporters for their backing.

READ MORE: Match report after Colchester United's draw with Bradford City

Cowley said: “You can’t fault the spirit and the togetherness, on and off the pitch.

“We showed fight and a never-say-die attitude.

“That’s not just the players, that was the supporters too, because they stayed with us.

“They could have easily got frustrated today – I certainly was – but they didn’t, they chose to give positive energy and we repaid them in the end.

“That spirit and togetherness is even more powerful when it comes in the whole stadium.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

“We haven’t given them (the supporters) that much but they’re really with us and we’re pretty indebted to our supporters and motivated to hopefully, pay them back properly.

“Bradford are a huge club with big expectation and I think we should take a lot of credit, because we totally dominated that game.

“They score and from that moment onwards, they’re just time wasting and taking time out of the game and really slowed it down.

“I know he plays ten minutes (of time added on), I get that but you do have to control the momentum of the game as well.

READ MORE: Colchester United 1 Bradford City 1 - as it happened

“We weren’t able to get the ball on the pitch but we got our just rewards, in the end.

I’ll be honest, we went in afterwards and we weren’t celebrating – we were just disappointed we didn’t win.

“I thought we did enough to win the game.

“We have to try and find the first goal because I think if we do, then football becomes a lot easier.”

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

McDonnell capped an excellent performance by scoring Colchester’s late equaliser.

The on-loan Nottingham Forest midfielder headed in Arthur Read’s corner to score his first-ever professional goal.

“Macca was fully deserving of that goal,” said Cowley.

“The football gods tend to look after the boys that are really honest, that are really hard working – he chased, he harried, he closed down, he won second balls, he got knocked down, he got back up again, he put out counter attacks, he sprints and he recovers.

“He does all of the things that the best professional footballers do.

“Normally with the football gods, when you do all of those things, they normally repay you and thankfully, they did today.”

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Colchester might have had two penalties prior to McDonnell’s equaliser, with Lyle Taylor and substitute Samson Tovide both having spot-kick appeals rejected either side of half-time.

Cowley added: “It’s definitely a penalty (on Lyle Taylor).

“He (Richie Smallwood) said he’s got the ball which he has but after he’s got Lyle and he fouls Lyle first.

“We could moan about that but we had so many good moments.”