Colchester United head coach John McGreal hailed his side after they won 1-0 at Luton Town to extend their unbeaten run in League Two to five matches.

Craig Slater struck with seven minutes remaining to settle a tight match and seal all three points for the U's at Kenilworth Road, lifting them into the top ten in the table.

McGreal said: “We’re delighted with it.

“It was a nip and tuck game between two good teams who went at it.

“We got the goal that we were craving late on and it was a great Christmas present for us."

Colchester's winner came just two minutes after Chris Porter had come on for Denny Johnstone in attack and it paid almost immediate dividends.

McGreal said: "I thought we dug in in the second half and midway through that half, they had a lot of territory, with balls coming into the box.

"I felt that we needed to make the change - the two centre-forwards worked their socks off again - but instantly I thought Ports (Chris Porter) got hold of the ball for us a little bit further up the pitch and made that little bit of difference."

McGreal was also full of praise for Colchester's away following, with nearly 500 U's supporters at Kenilworth Road to cheer their side on.

He said: "The fans were terrific and you could hear them right from the first to the 95th minute.

"They were fantastic again and you could see all of the boys going across at the end with big George (Elokobi) at the end taking his shirt off, they love it.

"It's a nice Christmas present for them and I'm sure they'll be fully loaded again next time when we play Stevenage.

"It's great for the players and great for us and hopefully, we've got the reward for them."