COLCHESTER United suffered a double-blow in their first home game of the season last night- they lost 2-1 to Leyton Orient and also had striker Clive Platt sent off.

Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United suffered a double-blow in their first home game of the season last night- they lost 2-1 to Leyton Orient and also had striker Clive Platt sent off.

Bowing out of the Carling Cup, at the first hurdle and at the hands of their former manager Geraint Williams, was bad enough. But for Platt to then be flashed the red card in stopping time, for violent conduct, was inexcusable.

The U's target man was sent off for an alleged use of the head, in an off-the-ball incident, so he now faces a suspension of at least three games.

Manager Paul Lambert said: “I never saw it (sending-off incident), but something obviously happened and it's certainly not like him.

“Clive is a gentle giant and he's better than that. Considering the way that he has been playing, it will be a real blow to miss him (through suspension). It makes tonight's defeat even worse.

“We were poor, and we never deserved to go through. I made a few changes from the Norwich game, but we shouldn't have played as badly as we did.

“We just never got going. We conceded a bad goal early on, and yet we still had 89 minutes to get back into it.

“We never really worked their keeper enough. Clive Platt and Kevin Lisbie were looking sharp, but there was no back-up for them,” added Lambert.

Orient broke the deadlock after just 80 seconds, via a header from Adrian Patulea, and added a second through JJ Melligan's angled shot in the 63rd minute.

Simon Hackney, who was the pick of the U's team, scored a consolation goal with virtually the last kick of the game. He buried a long-range free-kick.

The U's will look to bounce back in their first home league game of the season, against Yeovil on Saturday.