Angry Colchester United manager Steve Whitton described his team's defending as "laughable" after they allowed relegation-haunted Oxford to snatch an injury time winner.

Whitton said today: "We must have had three or four goes at clearing the ball around our six-yard box yet we still allowed Oxford to score.

"To make matters worse Phil Whelan was already laying on the floor when he poked the ball over the line with his studds.

"Our defending at that situation was laughable and it would have been funny if it hadn't been so costly."

The U's looked to be heading for a certain 1-1 draw thanks to a dominating second half performance and a timely equalising goal from defender Aaron Skelton with almost half-an-hour to play.

Simon Weatherstone had already shot injury hit Oxford - third from bottom going into the match - into a 22nd minute first half lead.

Whitton said: "The whole fiasco surrounding the winning goal was very disappointing.

"It put the dampener on the draw we achieved at Scunthorpe and our tremendous mid-week win at Preston.

"Once again the outcome shows we've got to be more ruthless in both six yard boxes.

"We had enough chances to get the ball away and in those circumstances, especially so near to the end of the game, you simply clear your lines and worry about what happens afterwards.

"I have always said to my players, anything in the six yard box bang it away. It was equally frustrating for our fans because I thought we'd turned our disappointing home form round.

"We were so much on top in the second half it only seemed a matter of time before we were going to score a winner ourselves.

"Oxford's first goal was also a bad goal as far as we were concerned so all in all the lads have had another big kick up the backside and hopefully they won't make the same mistakes at Cardiff on Friday."

Whitton was, however, the first to admit that the U's played second fiddle to Oxford in the first half of Saturday's game.

He said: "We were on the back fooot from the kick-off, waiting for things to happen."

U's reserves were in action at Wycombe Wanderers yesterday afternoon in their latest Avon Insurance Combination game.

Colchester goal-scorer Aaron Skelton celebrates his strike

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