Bradford loss could be Colchester's 'best day' - Cowley

Danny Cowley has been in charge of Colchester since January 2024

Colchester United boss Danny Cowley believes their 4-1 defeat at Bradford City could prove to be their "best day of the season" if they use it as a spur to help continue their play-off push.

Saturday's loss at Valley Parade ended a run of five successive wins and 13 matches unbeaten in League Two.

But the U's are eighth in the table and only one point outside the play-off places, as they seek a return to League One for the first time since 2016, with eight games to play.

"I've been lucky enough to have six promotions and sometimes the journey towards the top, and for us the journey towards the play-offs, is tough - but when you get (up) there it becomes even more of a challenge and even more difficult," Cowley told BBC Essex Sport.

"Prior to Christmas we went on a brilliant run, we then reacted very quickly off a couple of defeats and went 13 unbeaten.

"This day can be our best day of the season if we taken really good learning from it. We hope we have some bigger games to come."

A crowd of 23,381 watched second-placed Bradford register their 20th win of the season - the largest in their history for a fourth-tier game.

"How they are a League Two club, I'll never know - that was some atmosphere," Cowley added.

Colchester, who are next in action at home to Grimsby Town on Friday, had been disrupted by illness affecting three or four players in the build-up to the weekend.

As a result, Cowley said, they were perhaps unable to reach the performance levels they are capable of.

Harry Anderson levelled the scores following Calum Kavanagh's opener but George Lapslie restored Bradford's lead before the interval and there was no way back after that for the U's.

He continued: "Although we have players in our team that have played in front of big crowds and big games, for us as a new group, this is the first time we've had this kind of occasion.

"If we can learn the lessons about how we control the emotions, we will be able to play individually with more consistency and collectively with more cohesion."