Danny Cowley was pleased to see his Colchester side win while not being at their best in 2-0 triumph over struggling Shrewsbury.
Colchester had led from the fourth minute after Will Goodwin converted Samson Tovide’s delivery from close range, following Rob Hunt’s excellent play to retrieve the ball on the touchline.
And the U’s doubled their advantage in the 37th minute through Arthur Read’s magnificent first-time left-footed shot that flew into the top corner from more than 20 yards.
There were no further goals for Colchester after half-time but they did enough to close to within four points of the League Two play-off places.
Colchester boss Cowley said: “It was a really good win.
“I think if we want to get to where we want to go, we’ve got to learn to win when maybe we don’t play at our best.
“I didn’t think we quite found our rhythm against a really awkward, stubborn opponent.
“Credit to Gavin Cowan and his staff – Shrewsbury’s players made it really difficult for us and they worked really hard.
“If they keep playing like that, then they’re going to be just fine.
“As a consequence, it wasn’t an easy game.
“But the early goal helped and Arthur Read’s brilliant strike just before half-time put us in a really good place and it was pretty comfortable, from there on in.
“It’s a real quality of Arthur’s and it came at an important time because we didn’t have rhythm today, for whatever reason – we didn’t quite commit to how we wanted to play.”
Shrewsbury lie two points off the relegation zone, after Gavin Cowan suffered his first defeat in his second game since taking over from Michael Appleton.
Cowan said: “We’re in the business of getting results and we haven’t done that today.
“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb after three minutes, obviously an individual error, which was really disappointing.
“The other goal is worldie, I get that, but he rides three tackles to get there.
“We’re disappointed with that side of it but I actually felt in the game we were on the ascendency quite a lot, certainly in the second half and I don’t think our keeper has been worked at all.
“I’m really pleased with the players in terms of the attitude and their application and actually buying into what we were trying to do.
“I know we got a draw last week but there was definitely a progression from that, in terms of performance and our game strategy.
“We were a lot more on the ascendancy, really aggressive and pressing from the outside but I understand it’s about results.”
