COLCHESTER United head coach John McGreal felt a draw was a fair result after his side came away with a point at Macclesfield Town.

Theo Robinson's goal just before half-time secure the U's a 1-1 draw at Moss Rose, after Emmanuel Osadebe had given the Silkmen a 13th-minute lead.

McGreal made four changes to his starting line-up and changed to a formation with three at the back, following the exertions of the penalty shoot-out win over Spurs.

McGreal said: "I think (the draw) was about right.

"I thought we were really sloppy at the start.

"Credit to Macclesfield - they came out and sensed what happened on Tuesday (against Spurs).

"That's why I tried to change it and reignite a bit of energy.

"You can't take anything away from Macclesfield.

"They scored and could have gone 2-0 up - I think Gerks (Dean Gerken) made a good save.

"But on the 20-25-minute mark, we just got one or two phases of play together. "We were our own downfall - as well as Macclesfield did in the first 25 minutes or so I think we gave the ball away far too often.

"There were sloppy little passes and they were all over it.

"That was the disappointing thing but I think the change at half-time helped us in the second half.

"We need to learn that when you're up against a deep block in the final third, we need to quicken it up."

McGreal dismissed suggestions that Colchester suffered from a hangover from their magnificent Carabao Cup triumph over Spurs.

“I don’t think it’s the case (that there would be a hangover after the Spurs game)," said the U's boss.

“I’m not using that as an excuse.

“That’s why I made four or five changes and changed the shape.

“We felt that we had to do that, because of what had happened on the Tuesday but you have to give a bit of credit to Macclesfield.

“It’s a rainy day, the pitch was really boggy and long, which we know of from last year as well.

“The pitch isn’t conducive to play, although it is at times for them but we knew that it would be a bit of a sloppy pitch because of the weather.”