Colchester United caretaker manager, Wayne Brown, praised his players for their “reaction” during the second half of today’s 3-2 home defeat to Barnsley.

The U’s gave themselves a mountain to climb, by conceding three goals inside the first hour through Conor Hourihane, Adam Hammill and Ivan Toney.

Goals by leading scorer George Moncur (67 minutes) and half-time substitute Chris Porter (70) gave the U’s hope, but they could not fashion a late equaliser.

“It was a great reaction from the lads in the second half,” explained Brown.

“Once again we found ourselves 2-0 down at home at half-time, but it was a good response after that.

“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb after that first-half, but you’ve got to look at the positives, because we could have ended up winning this game.

“Their keeper (Adam Davies) made some good saves, and we also hit the bar (Tom Eastman’s header).

“It’s not going to be a quick fix, and we are only going to get better at not conceding goals by working on the grass in training during the week.

“We’ve got to show more belief in the first half, when we are on the ball, but it’s something for us to work on,” added Brown.

The U’s are now in the relegation zone, after suffering a sixth league defeat on the spin.

They are away at Rochdale next Saturday.