Head coach Danny Cowley felt John-Kymani Gordon was a deserving match-winner for Colchester after he scored the only goal in the victory at Grimsby.
It was the first away win of the campaign and first since September for the U’s, who did enough in harsh weather conditions at Blundell Park to snatch all three points.
Gordon linked up with fellow substitute Jack Payne for the goal in the 78th minute – their first touches in the match.
Cowley was delighted with the instant impact of the pair.
He said: “I thought the boys that started the game did an amazing job. They paved the way for those that came on.
“It was a great bit of play by Jack; he’s got to feel unlucky to be left out but we didn’t feel the conditions suited him.
“It was a great turn and pass to find JK, who is so deserving of that goal because he has worked hard at his game and done a lot of work for the team to this point.”
The strong winds and near-constant rain made conditions very difficult for both sides but Cowley was pleased with what he saw.
He added: “It was a really important win for us and a lot of effort went into it from us in the most difficult conditions.
“In all my games in management, I don’t remember experiencing a game with more difficult overhead conditions.
“For us to play with the resilience and determination, we did with some good technical quality.
“When you play in conditions like this you have to do the basics really well and expect the unexpected because of the conditions, which I thought we did. That really was the platform for us to win.”
Grimsby boss David Artell was frustrated by his side’s lack of a ruthless edge once again as they fell to their fourth straight home league defeat.
He said: “We’ve had four or five real big chances in the game. We’ve passed the ball better than we’ve done in a lot of other games while playing in terrible conditions.
“There are positives but there will still be frustration and anger because we’ve lost the game.
“We’ve made one critical error and they’ve punished us. We could’ve created 10 chances, and we’d still be frustrated we haven’t created 20, but it is not for the want of trying.
“They’ve been really ruthless, which we’ve done to other teams away from home, but we could’ve been out of sight before they even had their chance.”
