Danny Cowley hailed Lyle Taylor after the experienced striker scored twice in Colchester’s 3-0 win over Tranmere.
Taylor notched the 100th and 101st league goals of his career with a first-half brace.
He gave Colchester a fourth-minute lead when he converted from inside the six-yard box from Samson Tovide’s cross and doubled their advantage in the 38th minute when he decisively stabbed home from close range.
Tovide sealed victory in the 78th minute when he finished clinically past Luke McGee from Jack Payne’s precise pass.
Boss Cowley said: “Lyle made those finishes look easy, because he’s a quality player – he led by example.
“They say a week is a long time in football and it has felt like a long time, let me tell you.
“This time last week we were really disappointed with ourselves and we’ve had to live with that.
“That doesn’t define you – what does define you is how you respond and for us to respond with a win on Tuesday and a win today I think says a lot about the character of the group.
“We’ve worked all week for that clean sheet and I make no apology if we close the game down, we really wanted that clean sheet.
“It was a really honest, disciplined performance and I thought we did the basics of the game really well.
“Our defensive intensity, the aggression that we defended with, the focus that we had defensively, I was really pleased with.”
Tranmere substitute Kristian Dennis hit the woodwork late on and Colchester goalkeeper Matt Macey denied Harvey Saunders and Connor Wood.
But their boss Nigel Adkins said: “It’s never great to concede an early goal.
“We lost captain Tom Davies overnight with an illness and there’s been illness going through the camp.
“They’ve got the ball, we’re in a good shape and young Zak (Bradshaw) has just slipped a little bit and give them credit, because it’s a good ball through and it’s a good cross and a good finish.
“It’s how you respond when you go behind and the game was a bit stop-start.
“We’ve got ourselves in the game but then they go down the other end of the pitch and it was another good cross by them, to be fair, and another finish.
“We were well in the game second half but Regan Hendry mis-controls it, gets pounced on and they go and score and make it 3-0.
“It’s really annoying, as the players have been made well aware of, and goals change the complexion of games.”
