COLCHESTER United head coach Steve Ball felt his side were the better team in their 1-1 draw with Cambridge United.

The U's shared the spoils at the JobServe Community Stadium, after Greg Taylor's own goal cancelled out Harvey Knibbs' opener for Cambridge.

Both sides came close to winning it near the end, with Colchester duo Tom Eastman and Harry Pell both denied by keeper Dimitar Mitov and at the other end, League Two's leading scorer Paul Mullin firing just wide for the visitors.

Colchester's draw leaves them six points off the play-off places but head coach Ball felt it was a positive point for his side.

Ball said: “I thought we were the better team – I’ve just seen the stats and that proves it.

“We started really well and had a couple of good chances.

“It was a poor goal for us to give away with an early contact defensively where we didn’t clear the box.

"It was a good strike, a good save by Dean (Gerken) and unfortunately, their guy (Knibbs) got the rebound.

"We deserved our equaliser - Callum shoots from anywhere and we encourage that - anything can happen and it did.

"Whether it was going in or not, I'm going to be a bit biased to my player and say it was on target.

“I thought we had most of the possession, certainly in the second half which was mostly in their half.

“There were some real positives on what was a really difficult pitch today.

“To get the game on was brilliant and a lot of the staff were working on the pitch which was great.

“It was a positive point – we’d obviously like to get back on the winning trail again but I was really happy with how we played.

“I thought we started well and we’d spoken about that, before the game.

“We’ve had two tough games now in Cheltenham and Cambridge with them being top-three sides and I think we’ve shown that we can more than match them.”

Colchester are now six games without a win in League Two but Ball was encouraged by their display against third-placed Cambridge, ahead of the trip to Morecambe next weekend.

Ball added: "If you look at the game today and watch it back properly, I thought that we came back into the game after their goal.

"In the second half, I felt we were more or less in their half and had some good moments."