Carlisle manager Chris Beech was pleased with his players’ efforts after they played out a 0-0 draw with Colchester in their League Two opener.

The Cumbrians played their part in an entertaining contest at Brunton Park and had chances to win the game in each half, only to be denied by their former keeper Shamal George, who made a string of fine saves.

Beech said: “I’m very pleased with the players and the squad.

“There’s no getting away from it – the last 24 hours have been very strange at the club.

“When you’ve had one of the best pre-seasons I’ve ever had as a coach, manager or assistant manager so on the eve of everything starting, there was a little bit of chaos (with approach for defender Aaron Hayden).

“Football is simple and they don’t need me to tell you that they’ve done well.

“I’m very pleased but we’ve worked very hard.

“We have kept another clean sheet, we’re not conceding goals, we’re playing good football, the first 30 minutes of the game was excellent.

“We actually played better in that 30 minutes and had the chances we had and when the game stretches, our fitness and our capabilities and our hard work and honesty to run the miles, we were breaking away every time.”

George denied Rod McDonald in the first half and pulled off a superb double save after half-time, foiling both Tristan Abrahams and Jon Mellish in quick succession.

But Colchester battled hard for their away point and had chances of their own.

Their best effort was debutant Alan Judge’s strike which was pushed away by Carlisle keeper Magnus Norman, on the stroke of half-time.

In the end, a keenly-contested affair finished all square on the opening day.

U’s head coach Hayden Mullins said: “We knew it would be a tough game and that they would start fast.

“They had 6,000 fans here and we knew that they wanted to put on a bit of a show for them and we wouldn’t get anything our own way, which we didn’t.

“But we grew into the game especially in the first half and by the end of the first half, I thought we were much the stronger team.

“We finished with a really good chance from Judgey and managed the game the way we wanted to manage it.

“We knew had to slow it down at times because of the tempo and the pace of it and I think we did that.

“I was happy with the way the second half started and I think we earned our luck.

“The opener is always a tough one, especially with the fans back and the extra buzz.”