Northampton boss Chris Wilder pleased with JPT victory over Colchester

Substitute Marc Richards bagged the late winner in the first round tie after goals in each half had twice put Cobblers in front.

On-loan Sheffield United striker Dominic Calvert-Lewis grabbed his second goal for the club and on-loan Leicester midfielder Ryan Watson was also on target. But Macauley Bonne twice put the League One side back on level terms before Richards hit the late winner.

Wilder said: "It was an excellent test for us, Colchester like to pass the ball and they had the outstanding player on the pitch in Callum Harrriot. Colchester had a lot of the ball but you expect that from higher league opposition and we had to be patient.

"But we gave as good as we got, played some decent stuff and scored some cracking goals. To score three goals at home is pleasing, especially the way we got ourselves back in front each time.

"There were a lot of good individual performances. We always looked dangerous and Marc Richards is an outstanding player for us but so was Dominic Calvert-Lewin before that.

"We were always in the game and I'm delighted for the players, nine games in 28 days is a lot for them and the supporters as well.

"We're trying to produce decent performances on Saturdays and Tuesdays and I think we did that tonight. There was a lot more energy about us tonight.

"It was a good team performance, we've hardly been on the training ground because of the schedule and we've seen a lot of service stations in the last few weeks. It's been a case of play and recover but every manager at this level has that same problem.

"This is a big week for us and we need to get some consistency into our game. But we should have more of a settled side with just one game a week now."

Colchester boss Tony Humes has yet to see his side win in any competition so far and says they have to start working out how to win ugly.

He said: "We do the footballing things very well, we do all the nice things very well. But when it comes to doing the horrible things well we're not good enough to do what we have to do.

"It's individual responsibility, that's all it can be.

"You shouldn't have to tell any player to do anything. You coach them into how we want to play which they can do very well but when it comes down to it we can't stop the way we're conceding easy goals.

"It's not down to trying to play too much. We want to play and you can see tonight how much of the game we dominated out there.

"It's the nice things that we're doing well but the dirty bits of the game are letting us down which is players taking that decision on the pitch to stop whatever is happening.

"We conceded an early goal, possibly down to a lack of concentration, and then we conceded a goal early in the second half which is down to concentration again.

"We then conceded a goal straight after we scored and that's got to be concentration again and that comes down to individual mind set."