Colchester United head coach John McGreal said his players 'laid down a marker' tonight after beating Southend United 2-0 in the Checkatrade Trophy group stages.

Goals from Frankie Kent and Aaron Collins helped the U's win their Essex derby at the JobServe Community Stadium and claim victory in Group B.

McGreal made seven changes to his starting line-up along with changing to a 3-5-2 formation and the U's boss says the performance and result has given him food for thought, ahead of the League Two clash against Crawley Town this weekend.

He said: “It was a great team performance.

“We’ve mixed it up like Southend and we want the competition.

“We’re only 12 games in and we want them up to speed, because we need every member of the squad if we want to get to where we want to get to.

“Some of the boys who’ve come in tonight have laid down a marker.

“It’s a great performance by the boys and it sets us up next month for the game at Cambridge for a little bit of a two-game shoot-out.

“We can park it now and now look towards the game on Saturday (against Crawley Town).

"We've tweaked the system tonight and that's also given me really good food for thought, knowing that we can adapt the shape and put in a good performance."

Collins was one of the seven players to come into the Colchester side and the Wolves loanee marked his appearance by scoring his first-ever U's goal.

McGreal added: “Aaron started the first game of the season (at Notts County) and we then went a different shape.

“He’s been a little bit on the peripheral really but I think tonight you could see what he gives with the legs, the technical ability and the running in beyond and also, he gets in the goalscoring areas.

“I’m delighted for Aaron because he works ever so hard in training and he’s such a great lad as well, so he’s brought a lot to the team as well being a young boy."