COLCHESTER United boss Phil Parkinson could not believe his own eyes, such were the catalogue of hard luck stories to emerge from Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield.

By Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United boss Phil Parkinson could not believe his own eyes, such were the catalogue of hard luck stories to emerge from Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield.

“I couldn't believe what I was seeing at times. It is a day when everything has gone wrong for us,” confessed Parkinson.

“The performance was excellent. I was very pleased with the way that we played in the first half, because we were controlling the game. It was a massive injustice to be 1-0 down at half time.

“Occasionally, you get these sort of games. We hit the woodwork three times, and had two perfectly good goals disallowed. It is a game we should have won. Both goals we scored looked good goals.

“However, it's all about putting the ball in the back of the net. In my opinion, the referee won the game for them. The sending off was very harsh. I couldn't quite believe it.

“It's very hard on Garry (Richards). But that's football. I thought that the referee called a lot of big decisions the other way,” added Parkinson.

However, the U's boss is adamant that his team can put Saturday's disappointment behind them. They have won their last 12 home games on the bounce, and will be gunning for a 13th consecutive Layer Road success against Walsall tomorrow night.

“I'm sure we will come fighting back on Tuesday. I couldn't have asked for anymore from the lads,” continued Parkinson.

“The heads did not go down, even when we fell 2-0 behind. We could have gone on to lose by three or four goals, but we showed a lot of spirit, which is something that you can't buy.

“I want to steer away from stories about winning runs. I'd rather look at the season as a whole. At the moment, we are two-thirds of the way through a good season. This defeat is just one setback.

“We have 15 very exciting league games to play, and some big cup games to look forward to,” insisted the U's boss.

Huddersfield boss Peter Jackson admitted: “This is our most important win of the whole season. It was a massive three points for us today.

“We could have been 3-1 down at half-time, because they had plenty of chances and hit the post twice, but we got the goal and the bit of luck that we have perhaps been missing in recent games.”