Wayne Brown revels in Colchester’s win at Ipswich

Colchester head coach Wayne Brown hailed a “massive, massive plus” for his club a they beat his old side Ipswich 1-0 in the opening round of the Carabao Cup.

His team defended tenaciously throughout a resolute 90-minute display and won the game with their only clear-cut chance when Luke Hannant pounced on a slack pass across his own penalty area by Rakeem Harper in the 29th minute.

Meanwhile, Kieran McKenna, the Town manager, said he was disappointed with the result but the competition was not his priority.

It was the first time Colchester had won at Portman Road since 1951 when they beat Ipswich 2-0 in a Division 3 South game.

Brown said: “It’s important when you have nights like this that you enjoy them and the fans enjoy them. Nights like this come along rarely so it’s important that we enjoy them, we learn from them and take the performance forward.

“The chances that they had were from second phases, from crosses mostly from outside the box and the plan was to nullify them space and defend crosses.

“It’s a massive, massive plus for the football club and the way we want to go about our business.”

Beaten McKenna said: “It’s obviously a disappointing night but I thought our performance the first 30 minutes was really good and we created more than enough chances but the reflection of the game changed on one moment and after that it made it a difficult night.

“We did not do enough to get a goal back but it’s very early in the season and we have other priorities – there’s no doubt about that – and it’s about moving on very quickly.”