Colchester United manager Tony Humes was unhappy with his players' work-rate and desire after they slumped to a 4-1 home defeat against Rochdale.

The U's suffered their fifth successive league defeat and are now five points adrift of safety in League One, after their disappointing loss at the hands of Dale.

Colchester conceded three times in the space of 15 minutes in the first half, following goals from Matt Lund, Peter Vincenti and Ian Henderson.

And although substitute Gavin Massey pulled a goal back just after half-time for the U's, Jack O'Connell's header restored Rochdale's advantage and condemned the hosts to another heavy defeat.

Humes said: "There’s going to have to be an awful lot of analysis of players looking at their own performance and how much they wanted to be out there, which is a very sad thing to say.

“I think you have to question their desire – if you look at the manner of the first three goals where there’s players free because players haven’t stuck to their job and haven’t taken their responsibility to do their job.

“It’s far too easy so I’m questioning their desire, their attitude to hard work and whether they know their jobs."

For more on this story and five pages of coverage of the U's game with Rochdale, see Monday's Daily Gazette.