Aidy Boothroyd wants to see his Colchester United side show more consistency after seeing them scrape a 2-2 draw at home to Exeter City.

The U’s had to come from behind twice at the Weston Homes Community Stadiium to rescue a point against the Grecians and preserve their unbeaten home record under Boothroyd.

Colchester have lost only one of their last 12 matches and moved up to third in Coca-Cola League One with the point against Exeter.

However, boss Boothroyd believes they need to improve if they are to challenge the division’s other leading teams over the long term. He told the Gazette: “We were awful in the first half but we showed good character to come back and we’ve kept the home run going.

“We’ve said all along that we want to do better than last year and our home record shows that we’re doing that already.

“But I want us to be strong on the road as well and I want us to be consistent.

“That’s what the best teams do – they’re not up and down, they’re always picking up points.

“We can look at it as two points dropped but considering how we played, I think we might look back on it come May time that we’re grateful of that point.”

Boothroyd lamented his team’s poor start against Exeter.

The U’s found themselves behind in the sixth minute, having already survived two big scares before Stuart Fleetwood’s early opener.

“We want to win games but if we don’t start correctly and do things the right way then that’s the sort of thing you get,” said Boothroyd, who confirmed that midfielder Anthony Wordsworth needed stitches in a head wound sustained in the second half of the 2-2 draw.

“I’m not particularly happy and I didn’t celebrate our (second) goal because I expect us to be doing better than that.

“Exeter are one of those sides who on their day, are very very good.

“They play in a certain way to get the best out of their players.

“Looking at one or two of their players before the game, it looked like they might have wanted to get the game off.

“We wanted the game on but you would have thought it was the other way around, the way we performed.”

Meanwhile, Boothroyd said referee Paul Taylor was right to send youngster Medy Elito off for his challenge on Bertie Cozic, in the closing stages of the game.

Boothroyd added: “It was a young striker's challenge trying to make an impression on the home fans.

“He totally mis-timed it and he was unfortunate but it was a sending off.”