Colchester United were knocked out of the Essex Senior Cup at the third round stage tonight after losing 4-2 on penalties to Concord Rangers.

The U's played out a 3-3 draw with their Conference South opponents at the Aspect Arena after 90 minutes, with Macauley Bonne, Tyler Brampton and Sammie Szmodics all on target.

But Szmodics and Jamie Harney missed from the spot, as the Beachboys went through. Colchester, watched by boss Tony Humes and his assistant Richard Hall, fielded a strong line-up with plenty of senior experience.

The likes of Marcus Bean, Ben Gordon, Craig Eastmond and Dominic Vose were all keen to impress watching U's boss Tony Humes, along with youngsters such as Sammie Szmodics and Dominic Vose.

Colchester started well and went ahead in the 12th-minute when Bonne made no mistake from 15 yards, after Dominic Smith had done well to nod a high ball into his path in the box.

Bean went close soon after but out of almost nothing, Concord were level again on the half hour mark.

After the Beachboys had escaped down the U’s left, skipper Tony Stokes delivered a cross to the far post which James White bundled into the net under pressure from Colchester centre-back Jamie Marney.

Concord went in at the break the happier of the two sides but Colchester started the second half well and almost scored soon after half-time when Vose’s precise free-kick flashed inches wide of the post.

The U’s did regain their lead 12 minutes after half-time when right-back Brampton’s attempted cross from the right flew past Concord goalkeeper Joe Wright and into the far corner of the net.

And it was 3-1 just after the hour when Szmodics side-footed home from close range, after Eastmond had escaped down the Concord right and delivered a low cross.

But Concord responded less than two minutes later through Stokes, who blasted emphatically past Chris Lewington and into the far corner.

The Conference South side pushed for an equaliser after that and Stokes got it with seven minutes remaining when he composed himself in the area before planting a shot past Lewington for his second of the game.

Lewington denied Stokes a hat-trick in stoppage-time but the game went to penalties and the U's were knocked out.

COLCHESTER UNITED: Lewington, Brampton, Gordon, Marney, Lokko (c), Eastmond, Szmodics, Bean, Bonne, Vose, Smith.