Ryan Dickson admitted that Preston’s controversial winner was a “bitter pill to swallow.”

Colchester United’s left-back was in the best vantage point to see that Joe Garner was standing in an offside position, in the build up to Brian Wilson’s 81st minute own goal, which handed the Lilywhites all three points in a 2-1 win on Saturday.

“Garner was offside from the first ball. He stood offside, by about two or three yards, which you can see from the video,” confirmed Dickson.

“It was one of them where I thought at the time – ‘well, get the flag up, it’s kind of stupidly obvious’ – I think the lino (assistant referee) kind of realised he’d made the mistake after, but after is obviously not good enough, is it?

“You put all the effort in, so this is a bitter pill to swallow.

“It’s not nice, especially when it’s the winning goal. To end the game like that, nobody wants it.

“It’s one of those things. You don’t want to say bad things about people, but it’s hard to take,” added Dickson.

Dickson, now back in the team following loanee Luke Garbutt’s return to Everton, refused to attach any blame on Jabo Ibehre for his penalty miss.

“You know what you get from Jabo,” explained Dickson.

“Jabo gives you a high work-rate and is a big handful, he always has been. People miss penalties. He was brave enough to take it, so no one is going to hold him to that.

“Fair play to Preston, they are well organised and are good from set plays. But we ran them very close, we did well and I think we can be proud of ourselves.

“Some of the stuff we played was good, against a side who are very hard to break down,” added Dickson.

Tom Clarke headed Preston into a 29th minute lead, and Jabo Ibehre then missed a 32nd minute penalty before equalising early in the second half.

The U’s were denied a point when Chris Humphrey’s angled shot was blocked by keeper Sam Walker, only to hit Wilson and drop into the net.

The U’s return to action tomorrow evening, at home to Sheffield United.