Colchester United boss, John McGreal, admitted that his players “looked nervous” during the early stages of today’s 2-0 home defeat to Oldham Athletic.

A sluggish start cost the U’s dear as two early goals enabled the Latics to ease to their third victory on the trot, at the Jobserve Stadium.

Goals inside the first quarter-of-an-hour from defender Alex Iacovitti and striker Callum Lang really punished the lack-lustre U’s.

It was the U’s third home defeat on the bounce, following previous home losses to Forest Green Rovers and Tranmere Rovers, and it has put a dent in their play-off hopes, although they are only two points adrift of the top seven with five matches remaining.

“We looked nervous early on, and that has cost us,” said McGreal.

“Everyone makes mistakes, but these key decisions are unfortunately costing us goals at the moment.

- Match report: Colchester United 0 Oldham Athletic 2

“The warm-up was excellent, but then you could sense that the boys were nervous early on, and that showed in some of their decisions.

“I’ve not had a run like this at home, since I’ve been in charge, but we are still only two points off the play-offs.

“I thought we gave it a good go in the second half, but it shouldn’t take 45 minutes and a team-talk to get them going.

“We tried to make things happen, but Oldham threw their bodies on the line and I felt we were not cute enough in front of goal,” added McGreal.

Meanwhile, Oldham’s new boss, Peter Wild, who has now presided over three wins on the bounce, said: “We have given ourselves a chance of the play-offs, considering we were down in 16th before last weekend.

“We managed to hurt Colchester early on, and we were then resolute in our defending.

“I thought we dominated both boxes. Colchester had about 18 corners, but they didn’t look like scoring from any of them.”