Colchester United boss, Joe Dunne, endured a torrid night at Dagenham & Redbridge, due to his side’s heavy defeat, a red card and several injuries.

In addition to shipping four second-half goals in a 4-1 defeat, in this Johnstone’s Paint Trophy first round tie, Magnus Okuonghae now faces a suspension for a red card.

“It’s a bad night for the club,” admitted Dunne.

“We’ve picked up a suspension, and we have six or seven players injured now.

“The way the referee was referring the game tonight, I could see someone getting sent off. That’s the way it was, and we were in the process of taking Mags off when he got sent off.

“I thought Mags’ first yellow card was very harsh. It was a poor decision, though the second one was a yellow card.

“We were ragged in the second half, once the second goal went in. We were there to be put to the sword, and we were.

“It was four in the end, but it could so easily have been five or six.

“This is a hard one to take, and we have had a few words in the dressing room because we need to do better and not drop into that (losing) mentality again,” added Dunne.

The Dubliner was happy with his side’s first-half display, which had seen Brian Wilson break the deadlock with a precise free-kick.

But the U’s folded rather dramatically, especially after Okuonghae’s 63rd minute dismissal.

Dunne continued: “We needed to be mentally tougher than that.

“We controlled the game in the first half. We dominated the ball and we dominated possession, and got a deserved goal.

“It looked like we were going to score more, but half-time hurt us a bit.

“Gavin Massey felt his hamstring and Brian Wilson his calf, while Ryan Dickson was sick, and we kind of lost all momentum in the second half.

“Up until their first goal, we were still looking OK, but the sending off changed the game quickly, especially conceding so soon after the red card.

“After that, it was just damage limitation.

“It was disappointing, because we had been down to 10 men in previous games, and yet been resilient. But we just lost all our resilience tonight.

“But credit to Dagenham. Their second-half performance was excellent.

“My players have done well at the start of this season, but we will have to take this result on the chin and move on.

“In the end, I was just trying to preserve players. I had to take Craig Eastmond off, because I thought the referee was going to do the same to him (get sent off). At that stage your tactics are flying out of the window.

“If I could have taken another two or three off, then I would have done,” added Dunne.

The U’s boss confirmed that Sanchez Watt, Drey Wright and Freddie Sears were all missing due to injury, in addition to new injuries to Wilson, Massey and Morrison.