Ups and downs to ponder

LEE Johnson felt that a point wasn't such a bad return for his Athletic side on the opening day of the 2014-15 campaign at Colchester.

From being a goal down early on from Magnus Okuonghae to one up at half-time thanks to a Jonathan Forte double, though, he was left frustrated at George Moncur's second-half equaliser which gave the U's a draw they deserved.

“I'm happy with certain

parts of the game and I don't think it is a bad result, coming here for the first game of the

season and getting a draw,” Athletic's manager (pictured) said.

“But we got to a winning

position, pretty much cruising, and the second goal we conceded was from poor decision-making.

“We did score two fantastic goals. Our first was a piece of individual brilliance from Jonathan Forte and his second was from a really good move.

“Our midfield of Mike Jones, Liam Kelly and Carl Winchester were excellent.

“We come away with things to look at, but positive signs.”

Though he contributed strongly to Athletic's second goal, the manager was critical of Jonson Clarke-Harris – scorer of six goals in pre-season – for what he felt was a poor start to the contest.

And the manner of the goals let in, on the way to an 11th game unbeaten including last season, was of a disappointment to him.

He added: “It was just that bit of body contact where we should have been a bit firmer and a bit stronger, really.

“That's life and that's how goals are scored.

“The positive side was we played some great football at times and scored two really good goals.

“Their goals came from poor decision-making from James Wilson and Genseric Kusunga.

“We are on the board and it was always going to be difficult in the first game of the season.

“The fine tuning has got to be there. They (Colchester) are pretty settled as a squad, whereas we had a fair few new arrivals.

“It was a good advert for League One football – end to end, played at a good tempo and with a good referee.

“We take the point and we move on.”

Colchester boss Joe Dunne was left disappointed his men didn't claim a victory.

“I thought we did enough to win it,” he said. “A lot more of the penalty area action was in our favour in the second half, and territorially we did enough to take all three points.

“I thought it was a wonderful response from the team in the second half.

“We got more aggressive in midfield.”