COLCHESTER United head coach John McGreal was delighted with his side's 'excellent' performance against Bradford City.

The U's played out an entertaining 0-0 draw with the Bantams, at the JobServe Community Stadium.

It extended their unbeaten league run to 14 matches and lifted them back into the League Two play-off places, in seventh spot.

McGreal said: “I thought it was an excellent performance and a great game, to be honest.

"I thoroughly enjoyed our performance and it's everything I want to see from a team.

"It was a great advert for division two, because there was some really good football in testing conditions, on a freezing cold night.

“There were two teams vying to stay in and around the play-offs.

“It was a great game and I thought we took the game to them from minute one.

“I’ve got no complaints about the effort and application from the boys.

“We were knocking on the door and it was about us going cold and dropping a heartbeat in and around the 18-yard box to test the keeper; that would be the only picky thing.

“I thought the performance was very good against a really good, solid Bradford City team.

“The end product was the only thing that let us down.

“The energy levels were excellent and we backed it up from Saturday (against Macclesfield).

“We have to recover as we have another tough game on Saturday (against Exeter) but I’m really pleased with that performance.”

Colchester created the game's better chances, with Tom Eastman and Luke Prosser both coming close to breaking the deadlock, in the second half.

But Bradford's Chris Taylor did rattle the crossbar for Bradford with a long-range strike, late in the game.

"Easty (Tom Eastman) generally scores those after finding himself backpost and then Pross (Luke Prosser) has had a few delicate goals, of late," added McGreal.

"Courtney (Senior) went through the heart of their midfield and had the option of slipping in Theo (Robinson) and then late on, Courtney could have shown a little bit of composure, just to hit the target.

"We got in and around it; there were a lot of bodies, don't get me wrong - they got a lot of bodies back behind the ball, which made it tough.

"But I've got no complaints with the efforts of the boys - they were excellent.

"It wasn't for lack of trying and the approach play was excellent and the defending was very good, against the top player in the division.

"They've got some top quality players and Gary (Bowyer) has got them in a good position, in the league.

"They're a strong outfit and they've got a lot of permutations and a lot of players to choose from.

"It's similar to ourselves really and you want to keep that competitive edge.

"I thought it was a really enjoyable game.