John McGreal could not hide his disappointment after Colchester United were dumped out of the FA Cup at the first-round stage by non-league Oxford City this afternoon.

Matt Paterson's strike just after half-time was enough to condemn the U's to a 1-0 defeat in the tie at the Weston Homes Community Stadium, as the National League South side took the plaudits in front of a paltry crowd of 1,775.

U's head coach McGreal will have his players in for training at Florence Park tomorrow, in the wake of one of the club's worst cup results in recent years.

McGreal said: "It's really, really sore - we've hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.

"We talk about character on the pitch when you losing 1-0 but now it's how they come in tomorrow because we have to move on.

"It's really disappointing - I've had this before as a player and now as a manager.

"It's a cup competition that generates a lot of money for the club and we wanted to do well for the fans and for the club.

"It hasn't worked but there's no use dwelling on it - we have to move on because the games come thick and fast."

Colchester had chances both before and after Oxford City scored their winner.

The likes of Kyel Reid and Mikael Mandron both went close in the first half and Tom Eastman hit the bar, while in the second half substitutes Craig Slater and Lewis Kinsella both came agonisingly close to forcing an equaliser.

"We should be scoring and it's a bit of a story of the season so far.

"We've had opportunities but we were snatching at things and we lacked composure.

“The opportunities were coming sporadically and we huffed and puffed.

“We had prepped on Paterson getting across his man on crosses and he’s got ahead and scored.

“We try and put things into practice but some of our finishing especially in the second half, we had a lot of opportunities and we needed a little bit more composure."