Colchester United boss John McGreal admitted that today’s 3-1 defeat at Wycombe Wanderers was “a hard one to take.”

The U’s suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time since last September.

Goals from Adebayo Akinenwa and Paris Cowan-Hall put the Chairboys 2-0 up inside the first 25 minutes, and Luke O’Nien added a killer third on 75 minutes.

Sammie Szmodics grabbed a late consolation for the under-performing U’s, who have now not won in four league games.

“I went with a very attacking line-up and we created lots of opportunities, so this is a hard one to take,” confessed McGreal.

“We had a good start, only to suddenly find ourselves 2-0 down.

“You have to give credit to Wycombe, because they defended very well and threw their bodies on the line.

“But we had so many chances and it’s very disappointing that we only managed to score one goal,” added McGreal.

The U’s boss was also infuriated that Wycombe were not reduced to 10 men, when Mikael Mandron was felled just outside the box, by centre-half Nathan McGinley, when through on goal.

“That was a horrendous decision from the referee,” blasted McGreal.

“The referee thought that their lad (McGinley) got the ball, but I’ve seen it back on the video and he got nowhere near it. He was the last man.”

That incident happened just a minute after Wycombe had bagged their second goal.