More like a game of chess

John Ward felt that Colchester's uninspiring goalless draw with Rochdale was more like a game of chess than a football match.

However he also believes that had his U's side been 'more open' he is not sure the result would have been the same as it turned out: 'it was more like a game of chess than an open football match, but if we'd played open, I don't know how it would have finished.'

The U's manager admits that his side lacked that quality in the final third but nevertheless doesn't think that a point against a decent Rochdale side was a bad point: 'we couldn't find that final bit of quality in the last 30 yards of the pitch that we needed. We've taken a point and of course we wanted more than that, because we were the home side.

'But when you look at the whole scheme of things, we played Rochdale at a time when they're in good form and had a change of management.

'I saw them at Charlton and I knew this would be a tough game and so it proved. We couldn't find the opening but we stopped them getting the opening and you have to take what comes over 46 games.'

Colchester failed to score in a home game for the first time since August after drawing this blank.

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