Colchester United head coach John McGreal said he was proud of his side despite their 1-0 defeat at Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup this afternoon.

The U's bowed out at the first-round of the competition at the Crown Ground but gave a good account of themselves against their high-flying League One opponents.

Colchester, who went close through Frank Nouble and Sammie Szmodics in the opening 15 minutes, had to contend with injuries in the first half hour to both centre-back Tom Eastman and goalkeeper Rene Gilmartin.

And they eventually fell to a narrow defeat, following Dan Barlaser's deflected strike just after the half hour.

McGreal said: “We had some great chances to score in the first 25 minutes.

“I thought we played through them but we didn’t take our opportunities.

“We lost a centre-half in the first minute and then lost our goalkeeper after 30 minutes.

“We had to adjust and that took the momentum away from us, I think.

“They got a goal which unfortunately took a deflection because I think Dillon (Barnes) had it covered.

“The goal came at the wrong time for us because it took the wind out of our sails a bit.

“I think they had another opportunity to score after that but then we got in at half-time, re-approached the game and I thought we had the better of the second half.

“We rolled our sleeves up and got involved and you couldn’t see the division between the two teams.

“I’m really proud of the performance – we haven’t come away with anything but Accrington have been in the habit of winning games and we didn’t want to get beaten."

Colchester lost Eastman to a head injury in the opening minutes, while Gilmartin limped off with a hamstring problem after half hour and was replaced by Dillon Barnes.

“Tom had a lump on his head and Tony (Flynn) said it was wise to take him off," said McGreal.

“Rene’s done something to his hamstring so he’s had to come off.

“We’ve had injuries early on and had to adapt and that’s another reason I’m really proud – we can take a lot of encouragement."

McGreal did provide some good news on striker Luke Norris, after confirming that the U's leading scorer's ankle injury is not as bad as first feared.

Norris, who suffered the injury against Swindon Town last weekend, saw a specialist last week and the U's are hoping he will not be sidelined for too long.

McGreal added: “It’s nowhere near what we thought with Luke, that’s the good news about it.

“In terms of timescale, you’d have to speak to (physio) Tony (Flynn).

“At this moment in time, we’re hoping it will settle down over the next couple of weeks so he doesn’t need the operation."