COLCHESTER United manager John Ward hopes young Ipswich Town loanee Tommy Smith will become a better player for his harrowing experience at Yeovil on Saturday.

The 21-year-old New Zealand international has to take a large share of the blame for the Somerset side’s first three goals in the 4-2 defeat, with the usually assured U’s defence putting in a shambolic display.

Colchester have conceded 12 goals in the six games Smith has played.

“Tommy’s an honest young man and I like him to pieces,” said Ward.

“I don’t regret bringing him here at all and Ipswich will benefit from this spell in the long run.

“He’s not got any excuses. I’ve have to take him out of there in the end (subbed after 75 minutes) just to look after him a bit because he’s stumbling around and it’s a bit embarrassing for the lad.

“Now he’s got a big test to recover from this. I’ll need to take a good look at him through the week and decide whether to pop him back in there next Saturday or not.

“It won’t do him any harm if he can learn from it. He’s a fine young man, an honest, straight forward guy, and I’m sure he’ll look at his performance very closely.

“In eight, nine, 10 years time he might have played a lot of Championship games and a few more internationals – good luck to him, I hope he does.”