Boss Danny Cowley says ‘naive’ Colchester were second best at Accrington

Danny Cowley said his Colchester side were ‘outfought, outrun and outworked’ as Accrington beat them 1-0 to register their first Sky Bet League Two win of the campaign.

Stanley dominated the first half and grabbed the decisive goal in the 32nd minute when Charlie Brown fed Isaac Sinclair, who raced forward and slotted home his first EFL goal.

The visitors huffed and puffed without creating a lot and their day got worse when Owura Edwards was sent off for a high tackle in the 86th minute.

Cowley said: “I need to take responsibility. I didn’t pick the right team, it was too lightweight, we didn’t compete enough at top end of pitch. I need to look at myself for that.

“We knew they would fight. We were naive, we were not streetwise enough and we had a game plan which we didn’t execute well enough.

“That was so short of a performance that I would expect from my team. I am so disappointed, it was so lacklustre.

“Our fans work all week, they will have left early this morning and we gave them absolutely nothing.

“We let ourselves down, we let them down and that stings.

“We were outfought, outrun and outworked – that’s the worst way to lose any football match.”

Stanley are the last side in League Two to chalk up their first win of the campaign and manager John Doolan was a relieved man as his team climbed off the bottom of the table.

He said: “I am very pleased after the week we had.

“We had meetings after last week’s defeat at Cheltenham, which was unacceptable, and I have asked the players questions and they have answered them. That’s what I wanted.

“The game should have been out of sight in the first half as we had chance after chance and then we held them at arm’s length in the second half.

“For Isaac Sinclair, that’s his first EFL goal. He is finding his feet in this league, he is a top player, he is robust and he is a talent and he just needed to add goals at this level to his game.”

Doolan admitted he wasn’t worried prior to the game but knows they need to avoid the relegation battle of last season.

“You can’t be worried after six games, I know some of the fans were saying ‘here we go again’ as we went the first nine games last season without a league win but now we have it in seven.

“We had the season we had last year, it was a massive achievement keeping this football club up but we have learnt from that experience and we don’t want it again.”