Danny Cowley insists Colchester still have work to do to secure their League Two status despite their vital 2-0 home win over Grimsby.
Colchester took a fifth-minute lead through Tom Hopper, who ran onto Arthur Read’s excellent pass and coolly lifted the ball over goalkeeper Jake Eastwood and in.
And John Akinde sealed the Us’ victory in the 79th minute when he lifted a fine effort from just inside the area into the far corner, from Noah Chilvers’ pass.
The victory relegated Forest Green, who did not even play on Tuesday night, but Colchester boss Cowley said: “We’ve still got work to do but I think we can be really pleased with ourselves tonight.
“I thought we had a really good first half an hour and went 1-0 up, could have gone 2-0 up.
“But we didn’t go 2-0 up at that time and probably in the middle part of the game, there was a bit of a storm.
“We lost Alistair Smith which was a big loss and came out and tried to keep the same system that just didn’t quite work, with the personnel.
“So then they were quite gung-ho and loading six on the attacking line so we went to a back five and I think once we did that on maybe 50 minutes, we got a foothold back in the game and looked a real threat on the counter-attack.
“We had numerous chances and it took a Glenn Hoddle-esque chip from John Akinde to win us the game.”
Grimsby, who are not yet mathematically safe, pushed hard for an equaliser after falling behind early on and Donovan Wilson and Harry Clifton went close to levelling.
But despite Colchester defender Tom Dallison being dismissed for a foul on Justin Obikwu in stoppage time, Colchester claimed victory.
Grimsby boss David Artell said: “If I give anyone the hairdryer treatment, it’s for lack of effort and there wasn’t lack of effort tonight.
“That’s the only time I’ll get irate and it’s not my job to shout at people – it’s my job to help people get better.
“Do you ever get a teacher shouting at a 10-year-old? It’s his job to help them.
“For me, it’s about standards, it’s about making sure with that final pass and that was the difference tonight.
“It’s about having those standards from where we are to maybe that next level.
“They’ve picked a team to try to outmuscle us and win those set-pieces and we’ve stood up to all that, which is credit to the players, but it’s that difference between the ball going behind someone and not through on goal and actually someone scoring the goal.”
