Joe Dunne felt Colchester United were unfortunate not to win their entertaining opening-day game with Oldham Athletic.

The U's drew 2-2 with the Latics at the Weston Homes Community Stadium and boss Dunne felt that after substitute George Moncur had scored his second-half equaliser, his side might have gone on to claim victory in their League One curtain-raiser.

Dnne said: “I thought that we did enough to go on and win what was a terrific, open game.

“It was a real humdinger of an opener.

“We made a wonderful start – we scored from a set piece which we felt was an area that we could exploit.

“We got a bit of a deflection in our favour but it was a good finish from Magnus (Okuonghae).

“Up until the goal, we were doing really well and the game plan was spot on.

“But after that, we became a bit more active with the ball and didn’t close them down enough.

“The game could have gone away from us after that, because they started to control the ball.

“For some reason, we seemed to stay off them but you have to give Oldham credit for the way they responded."

A brace from Jonathan Forte left Colchester trailing at half-time and Dunne admitted Colchester might have done better with the two goals they conceded.

He said: “Oldham finished a lot stronger than us in the first half with the two goals that they scored.

“I was disappointed with the goals that we conceded.

“There was a bit of hesitation from us maybe for the first goal and it was a good finish and we should have dealt with the ball in the area prior to Forte getting the second.

“We needed to get more aggressive in midfield which we talked about at half-time and I think that changed the game.

“But it was a wonderful response from us in the second half."

Dunne felt Colchester had a valid penalty shout in the second half when Sean Clohessy's cross appeared to hit James Wilson's arm in the area.

Dunne said: “I think if it were in the World Cup it would have been given and the position of his (James Wilson’s) arm was high.

“On another day, you could get it."

For five pages of coverage of the U's opening-day game with Oldham Athletic, see Monday's Daily Gazette.