Colchester United manager Tony Humes felt his side deserved more from their game at Coventry City, following their 1-0 defeat at the Ricoh Arena.

Jim O'Brien's strike late in the first half condemned the U's to a first defeat in five matches and leaves them three points adrift of safety, with five games remaining.

Humes admitted he was disappointed with his side's first-half display against the Sky Blues.

But Colchester were much better in the second half, with George Moncur, Gavin Massey and substitute Sammie Szmodics all coming close to equalising.

“It was a very frustrating defeat,” said Humes.

“We didn’t start the first half like we did the second half and you can’t do that - it's been a bit of a story over the last few games.

"We didn't play in the first half which obviously limits our opportunities of being creative and getting higher up the pitch.

“You can’t turn it off and on and it has to be consistent, because experienced players won’t give you many chances.

“Saying that, we had chances to get back in it and I thought we did enough to get something out of the game.

“A couple of teams have gained a point on us and it's a setback but it still doesn’t change the outcome that we need – we still need to win at least three games from our last five.”

Humes is hoping that Sam Walker's knee injury is not serious, after he hobbled off at the end of the Coventry defeat.

Walker suffered the injury after jumping for a high ball in the closing stages of the game and is now a doubt for the U's trip to play Chesterfield, on Tuesday night.

"Sam's feeling a little bit easier," said Humes.

"He was quite shaken up by it when it first happened but I think it's easing off.

"We'll have to see he is tomorrow and Monday for Tuesday night."

For five pages of coverage of the U's game at Coventry, see Monday's Daily Gazette.