Colchester United striker, Luke Norris, issued an apology to his manager John McGreal and U’s fans after his angry response at being substituted during Saturday’s goalless home draw against Morecambe.

East Anglian Daily Times: Sammie Szmodics cracks in a first-half effort over the bar against Morecambe. The U's drew a blank in a 0-0 draw. Picture: STEVE WALLER WWW.STEPHENWALLER.COMSammie Szmodics cracks in a first-half effort over the bar against Morecambe. The U's drew a blank in a 0-0 draw. Picture: STEVE WALLER WWW.STEPHENWALLER.COM (Image: � Copyright Stephen Waller)

U’s joint leading scorer McGreal seemed to try and blank McGreal as he trudge off the pitch, to be replaced by substitute Mikael Mandron with 17 minutes remaining.

The 25-year-old, upset at being replaced, was also frustrated by his failure to find the net for the first time since mid-October, and also his side’s inability to break down a stubborn Shrimps defence.

Norris said: “Apologies. It was just one of those things.

“I’ve just spoken to the gaffer (McGreal). I was totally in the wrong, in the way I reacted. I just wanted to get the win for the team.

“It’s just been frustrating this Christmas. We have put ourselves in such a good position with the win at MK Dons, and I felt we could have got a lot more from the Stevenage and the Morecambe home games.

“There was nothing to it (his reaction). It was just a bit of me seeing red, and being frustrated, because I had wanted to do well.

“I have high standards myself. I felt that we did more than enough to warrant winning the game. We are all the same in the changing room at the end. We are all feeling down at the moment, because promotions don’t come around very often for most players,” added Norris.

Although Norris has bagged eight goals this term, he has not scored since the 3-1 home win over Crawley (tomorrow’s hosts) on October 13 – he did, however, miss five games with an ankle injury.

“We had more than enough chances in both games to get a lot more out of them,” continued Norris, with reference also to the Boxing Day 2-1 defeat to Stevenage,

“We’re going through a little sticky patch here, at home, in our last two games and we need to get out of it.

“It seems to be a common tactic with teams coming here now, putting men behind the ball.

“They know what we are capable of, so we have to even find a new way of breaking them down to get the three points.

“The final ball is letting us down, and the final touch. Nothing seems to be dropping for us in the right way, and sometimes that’s football. We need a bit of luck.”