Neil Harris heaped praise on his Cambridge side after they recovered to claim an impressive 2-1 victory at Colchester.
Cambridge had fallen behind in the 13th minute when Arthur Read calmly slotted low past Jake Eastwood after Adrian Akande had burst down the left wing and picked him out.
But the visitors turned things around with two goals in the space of two minutes just before the break.
Cambridge equalised in the 45th minute when James Brophy’s free-kick deflected off the Colchester wall to wrong-foot goalkeeper Matt Macey and sail into the net.
And they completed their turnaround two minutes into first-half stoppage time when Mamadou Jobe rose high at the far post to head home Sullay Kaikai’s free-kick, leaving Harris a happy man.
He said: “I can’t praise my players highly enough.
“It’s a tough place to come, Colchester – I saw them quite a lot in the second half of last season and I thought they were outstanding here.
“They were one of the form teams in the second half of last season – they’re so difficult to play against and they’ve got some really good players.
“They built real momentum with the win at Shrewsbury and we knew it was going to be a really tough challenge and they were tough to break down.
“We found ourselves behind but I wasn’t worried tonight – I was just confident we would bounce back.
“I think it was because in the first 40 minutes, I think we could have been six up.
“We had chance after chance in the first half and I knew chances would come.
“To turn it around like we did before half-time was very pleasing.”
Colchester boss Danny Cowley was disappointed to see his side suffer their first league defeat of the season.
He said: “We lost to a very good team.
“We’re really disappointed, because we got ourselves into a good place in the game.
“We scored a brilliant goal and were playing just how we wanted to but the game was lost in a mad three minutes.
“We want to get in at half-time 1-0 up, we defend the corner well, we then have the opportunity to counter which had too much risk, in that moment.
“It’s coming up to half-time, so don’t lose it and give a foul away.
“We’re frustrated with the (first) goal – I don’t like the law by the way but it states that the opposing player must be a metre away from the wall.
“Then we don’t administer kick-off right, we get emotional and give a foul away and then don’t defend the set-piece well enough, so within three minutes we go from 1-0 up to 2-1 down.”
