Colchester United manager John McGreal said his team got hit by a late “sucker” at Lincoln City as his U’s side didn’t want to just play out a draw at Sincil Bank.

With the game balanced at 1-1 heading into time added-on at the end and the hosts down to ten men, McGreal said his team were chasing a three-point haul.

However, it was the Imps who snatched the points to enhance their own play-off push as Luke Waterfall bundled in a last-gasp header to consign Colchester to a third consecutive defeat.

“We set ourselves out to win the game (when it was 1-1),” said McGreal.

“We could have sat in and gone for a 1-1, but what’s the point?

“We were going to win a game of football but we haven’t been able to do that.”

Courtney Senior stepped off the bench to score for Colchester, just four minutes after coming on as a substitute, and equalise Elliott Whitehouse’s penalty for Lincoln.

However, McGreal felt the way his side were unable to see out the game summed up their season and he promised changes in the summer.

He added: “Courtney came on and got involved straight away with a one-two and a lovely finish and we had chances to win it.

“The fact we didn’t take them sums us up and that’s frustrating.

“We will deal with it in the summer without a shadow of a doubt.

“We have the nucleus of a fantastic squad and I believe in what we are doing.

“There were nine to ten thousand there at Lincoln and our boys took it all in their stride; they thrived on it but it was a sucker to take a defeat.

“I was proud of the way we played but not to concede like that and lose the game.”