Cold, hard facts just do not lie.

Colchester United are going to have to tighten up at the back or they face the danger of losing every match.

The slipshod U's defence simply threw this game away by gifting Blackpool's two-goal hero Brett Ormerod a vital winner in the dying seconds, having battled to get back on level terms via a sizzling Kemal Izzet goal only minutes earlier. Find out more about Colchester United FC And it wasn't the first time this season the U's have fallen foul of a last-minute strike. Five times in 15 League and cup outings the defence has leaked a 90th minute goal:

Guilty: Tranmere's Stuart Barlow nets a last-minute penalty as the U's win 2-1

Guilty: Barnsley's Bruce Dyer and Lee Jones both score in the last two minutes as U's lose 3-1

Guilty: Simon Clist nets in the 90th minute as Bristol City win 3-1

Guilty: Stoke's Stefan Thordarson seals a 3-0 win in the last-minute

Guilty: Blackpool's Ormerod snatches a 2-1 win four minutes into time added on.

Add to that little lot 79th-minute goals from Northampton's Chris Hargreaves and Oldham's John Eyre and an 83rd-minute strike by Brentford's Lloyd Owusu, and it shows all is not well in and around the U's defence towards the end of matches.

And just to prove how difficult the U's find it to remain fully focused at vital stages of any match, they have also let in goals in the crucial minutes either side of the half-time break - to Beckett (Chesterfield) 47; Murray and Jones (Bristol City) 40 and 47; Vandeurzen (Stoke) 44 and Ormerod (50) on Saturday.

Ironically the U's also lost 2-1 to a last-gasp goal from Phil Clarkson - an unused sub in this match - as Blackpool snatched all the spoils again from the final game of the 1998-99 Division Two campaign.

Then the Tangerines didn't boast a clinical finisher like £1.5m-rated striker Ormerod - who now has 13 goals for the season, but he didn't need to be on top form to make the most of the two presents the U's gifted him this time.

Although a long way from their best, Steve Whitton's Layer Road men looked worth a point until a spell of sloppy defending five minutes into the second half let in Ormerod to fire Blackpool ahead.

The U's squandered two easy opportunities to clear the danger before somehow allowing Ormerod to drag a shot across the face of Andy Woodman's goal.

He was then left completely unmarked at the far post to head in Jamie Milligan's resulting cross.

It was a similar story with Ormerod's vital winning strike. The four minutes of time added on were all but exhausted when the Blackpool scoring machine was again left totally unmarked in front of goal just outside the six-yard box to finish off a neat pass laid into his path by substitute John Murphy.

Minutes earlier Izzet had finished off a spell of U's pressure by firing the visitors back on level terms with a terrific angled drive into the bottom corner of former Heybridge Swifts keeper James Pullen's net.

It wasn't to be the U's day from the moment back-up keeper Simon Brown dropped out of the match with an upset stomach just before kick-off.

Only once did they threaten to beat Pullen - currently on loan from Ipswich Town - in the first half. Sadly Mick Stockwell lost control at the vital moment, allowing the young keeper to scramble the ball clear.

Kevin Rapley just failed to put the finishing touches to a searching Stockwell cross, while Karl Duguid and Izzet fired other shots inches wide as the U's tried to claw their way back into the game.

Scott McGleish had the ball in the net early in the match, but he was flagged offside.

Blackpool also came close with great efforts from Martin Bullock, while only an acrobatic save by Woodman kept out a superb Paul Simpson shot.

Former Scottish international defender Steve Caldwell, on loan from Newcastle, came within an ace of marking his debut with a goal, while Ormerod should have put the game out of the U's reach in the 83rd minute, but his flashing drive bounced to safety off the underside of the bar.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.