BEN Stevenson said Colchester United’s players were left ruing not making more of their chances as they were hit by a late sucker punch by Lincoln City.

The Imps won the League Two clash 2-1 with a stoppage time winner from Luke Waterfall as the U’s came up just short again against a promotion-chasing side.

The defeat was Colchester’s third in a row and Lincoln’s win came despite them having Michael Bostwick sent off with six minutes to go.

With a man advantage and the game poised at 1-1 heading into the final stages, Stevenson, who is on loan at Colchester from Premier League-bound Wolverhampton Wanderers, said he felt the U’s could go on and win, but it wasn’t to be for the visitors.

He said: “It was really frustrating, especially after Lincoln went down to ten men as we felt we had the upper hand.

“We were creating chances throughout the game, but we have to be better than that.

“We could have gone on to win it ourselves and that’s been the story of the last few games really.

“We just haven’t taken chances when we’ve had them.

“We had most of the possession and all that was lacking was in the opposition box and finishing it off.

“That’s what we need to do and finish teams off when we can.

“You can look at the last few games really - Luton, we beat them and were the better team, Accrington, it was a narrow defeat and Notts County, I thought in the first half that we were the much better team.

“We can definitely compete with these teams and it’s just getting over the line with getting goals.

“That’s obviously what’s lacking at the moment, but we’re a young team.

“We play in the right way but we just need the goals to finish these teams off.”

On the same day that the U’s were getting beaten at Lincoln, Stevenson’s parent club – Wolves – were wrapping up the Championship title with a 4-0 win at Bolton Wanderers.

It means he will head to Molineux to engage in a Premier League campaign next year, but he isn’t concerned by that at the moment as he is concentrating on helping Colchester finish the season strongly.

And the 21-year-old midfielder feels that his experience with the U’s has benefitted him as a player.

He added: “It has been an ideal move for me as Colchester are a team who get the ball moving and try to play possession football.

“That suits me so I’ve been really happy and enjoyed my time at the club.

“It will be good for myself to be going back to Wolves to a side that’s going up to the Premier League and hopefully I can go back and impress, but I’m still here now and want to go out on a high with Colchester.”