David Artell praised his “magnificent” Grimsby side after they defied Colchester with 10 men to record a fifth straight League Two victory.
Harvey Rodgers grabbed the only goal in the 38th minute when he scored from the edge of the area from Charles Vernam’s pass.
Grimsby played the final 24 minutes of normal time plus 11 minutes of stoppage time with 10 men after their captain Kieran Green was dismissed following two yellow cards in the space of five minutes.
But the visitors stood firm to claim another win and a sixth successive clean sheet, much to boss Artell’s delight.
Artell said: “It was a magnificent performance, another clean sheet and a magnificent win.
“I don’t actually think that Jack [Smith] has had many saves to make.
“We made a double sub straight after the sending-off and we changed shape and then we tweaked the shape, which helped us stop them going across the pitch.
“I thought the most dangerous part of the last 20 minutes, and there was 11 minutes of injury time, was the first five or 10 minutes.
“Once we stopped that, they had pot shots from the edge of the box and crosses into the box and you’ve got to be as comfortable as you can be in that sort of situation, because that’s what’s going to happen.
“They hit the post with a screamer from 25 yards but with 10 men, if that’s what it’s going to take to break us down then you sort of live with that.”
Colchester saw their six-match unbeaten league run ended despite putting on the pressure in the second half.
Both Samson Tovide and Jack Payne hit the woodwork for the Us but they could not avert a home defeat.
Colchester boss Danny Cowley said: “We have a really good way into the game against a very good team that are in a good moment.
“To be fair to them, they’re a good team, the way they defended at the end I can see why they’ve kept as many clean sheets as they have.
“For us, I thought we had a good way in in the first 25 minutes. The boys committed to the way we wanted to play and I think we had good control of the game.
“I didn’t like how we finished the first half – I thought we lost our way a little bit.
“We found some solutions at half-time and came out and played with a lot of fight and passion and a lot of courage.
“They went down to 10 men and we tried to bring as many attackers onto the pitch as we could but we didn’t make the right decisions.”
