COLCHESTER United man-of-the-match Dean Gerken played a blinder against Leicester City last night, but his saves were not enough to prevent the U's from sliding to a narrow defeat.

Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United man-of-the-match Dean Gerken played a blinder against Leicester City last night, but his saves were not enough to prevent the U's from sliding to a narrow defeat.

Gerken made several breathtaking saves, in either half, and was only beaten by Lloyd Dyer's 49th minute strike.

“I needed that performance, because I have been playing badly over the last few weeks,” confessed Gerken.

“It's my job to make saves, which isn't something I have been doing recently. All keepers go through bad patches, but I don't want to be labelled as a keeper who makes mistakes.

“Leicester was always going to be a stern test, and they are always going be up there near the top. It was criminal that a club of that size got relegated from the Championship.

“I'm there to make saves and keep clean-sheets, and there was not much I could do about the winning goal, although it was disappointing that it came from one of our corners that broke down.

“Mark Yeates was very unlucky not to get us the equaliser with his late free-kick. I was standing right behind that effort. It started out a yard wide of goal and then began curling in. I thought it was going to be a goal, but it hit the post.

“It's still early days for us. We're feeling better in ourselves and we just need a little bit more belief.

“Kit (Symons) is a top man and a great coach. We need to get some results for him, although I'm sure he will be a great manager one day, whether it be here or somewhere else,” added Gerken.