Colchester United assistant manager, Richard Hall, admitted that “preventable goals” once again cost the U’s, following today’s 3-2 home defeat to fellow strugglers Crawley Town.

“It’s a devastating setback, I’m not going to lie to you,” admitted Hall.

“We had the majority of the play, and the majority of the game, and in the end three very preventable goals have cost us.

“We gifted Crawley four chances in the game, they scored from three of them and hit the post from the other one.

“We let the ball bounce, and we let the cross come in; these are things we have been talking about in training all week.

“It just didn’t happen today, and it hasn’t happened the whole season for us,” added Hall.

The U’s broke the deadlock through Sammie Szmodics’ 11th minute opener, and skipper David Fox made it 2-2 early in the second half with a quality free-kick.

But in the end, they were beaten by Izale McLeod’s 75th minute penalty.

The U’s are not six points adrift of League One safety.