DANNY Cowley highlighted an ‘incredible’ effort from his Colchester United players after they won 1-0 at Grimsby Town to chalk up their first away victory of the season.

John-Kymani Gordon’s late goal secured the U’s all three points at a rain-sodden Blundell Park, to lift the U’s up to 19th spot in the League Two table and extend their unbeaten run to four matches, in all competitions.

Gordon fired home from fellow substitute Jack Payne’s pass, to score his first goal for Colchester and seal them victory over a Grimsby side who had started the day in the play-off positions.

READ MORE: Grimsby 0 Colchester United 1 - match report after U's win

Cowley said: “It was a really important win for us.

“A huge amount of effort went in from the players, who I thought were incredible in the most difficult conditions.

“I’ve managed nearly 1,000 games and I don’t remember ever there being a game in more difficult conditions.

“For us to play with the determination and the resilience we did was fantastic and we also showed some good technical ability at times.

“When you play in conditions like this, you need to do the basics really, really well.

(Image: RICHARD BLAXALL)

“Defensively, you have to make sure that you’re always defending the maybes and you expect the unexpected because of the conditions.

“I thought we did that great and it ultimately gave us the platform to go and win the game.

“Sometimes that pave the way for the boys that come on.

“It was a great bit of play by Jack (Payne) and he showed really good calmness.

READ MORE: Grimsby Town 0 Colchester United 1 - as it happened

“He’s got to feel unlucky to be left out and it was literally the conditions that beat him today – we just didn’t feel that they would suit him.

“We felt that to get two forwards on the pitch that we could play into would be very important because with the wind on your tail, if you just play in behind, then the ball just runs off for goal-kicks.

“You need to play the ball into the forwards, so that was good.

“Payney did well to find JK and John is so deserving of that goal.

“He works so hard on his game and he’s done a lot of work for the team to this point and we’re working really hard for him to add the assists and the goals to his game.”

(Image: RICHARD BLAXALL)

Conditions were tough for both sides, with a strong wind swirling around Blundell Park throughout along with heavy rain.

Colchester managed the game well and created plenty of chances throughout, although they did need Matt Macey to make a vital save in stoppage-time to ensure their victory.

“It was difficult in the first half as were playing into the wind, which is what we decided to do,” added Cowley.

“When you go into the wind, you need your pace and we knew we had Owura and Samson, who managed to keep going like he does.

“That was the plan in the first half but it wasn’t easy, because the ball was coming on so quick and it was in the air so much.

“But we actually carried a lot of threat in the first half on the counter and we had so many good moments and good chances and some counter-attack moments to maybe be more clinical in the final action, before the final action.

“The first-half performance gave us a really good platform to push on from.”