Colchester United’s club captain, Luke Prosser, was “hurting” after Carlisle United snatched a point with a 79th minute free-kick in a 1-1 draw at Brunton Park on Saturday.

Prosser was excellent in the heart of a three-man defence, and seemed to have helped to guide the U’s to back-to-back wins and also successive clean-sheets, following on from the previous weekend’s 2-0 home win over Newport.

However, the U’s let their opponents off the hook by failing to build on Courtney Senior’s first-half goal, and were made to pay with two lost points.

“We are hurting in there because we wanted the three points today and yet we’ve only come away with one point,” rued Prosser.

“We need to win these sort of games. I know we have something to take away with us, but it should have been more with the whole manner of the game – they didn’t have many chances on goal and yet managed to score from a free-kick.

“We have standards and we want to win these games,” added Prosser.

Operating as a sweeper, fit-again Prosser felt that his side should have over-whelmed the Cumbrians.

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He continued: “Especially for a defender, 1-0 away from home would be the perfect performance.

“We had a few chances at the end, but it feels like we have definitely dropped two points today.

“We could have been so far ahead – we had so many chances to kill them off, especially in the first half.

“Sam (Walker) obviously pulled off a worldly save (to keep out Cole Stockton’s header) but we expect that off Sam, because he is a world class keeper.

“It’s frustrating, but we still created chances. We had 18 shots but only managed to put one in the back of the net.

“It’s definitely something for us to build on. If you can pick up points away from home and then win your home games, then you will be there-or-thereabouts come the end of the season.

“It’s disappointing, though, because we nearly had them there.

“We felt comfortable at the back. It might have not looked like that, with us having to soak up some pressure and them kicking towards their home fans, but we had chances on the counter and should have been three or four up before they got the equaliser.”