COLCHESTER United manager John McGreal admitted that the ambition of him and his players proved their undoing as they lost 2-1 at Lincoln City.

The League Two defeat – Colchester’s third in a row - was a particularly tough one to take as Lincoln had been reduced to ten men after a sending off and their winning goal came with almost the last kick of the game.

The U’s had been unable to take a number of chances to get a winner themselves but kept pressing and got caught out at the death as Lincoln’s Luke Waterfall headed home in stoppage time.

And McGreal was left to rue his side coming away with nothing from a game that he felt they could have taken all three points.

He said: “It was a sucker punch and a bitter blow, but we knew that we had to go and try to win the game.

“We went four up top to try to do that but it was a poor goal to give away.

“I can’t argue with some of the football again, but we’ve lost the game.

“It’s fine margins.

“We have had a tough run-in but we’ve had chances in all the games we’ve had recently.

“We’ve lost the last three and that’s the first time I’ve been beaten three on the bounce, but we shouldn’t have been beaten at Lincoln.

“It’s just that we haven’t been able to punish the opposition at the right moments.

“But it was one where we had to go for a win in the game.

“We could have sat in and kept it to 1-1 but I’m not like that and I want to win games of football for the fans.

“Unfortunately we just weren’t able to do that.”

Throughout much of the 90 minutes Colchester had looked capable of taking the three points at Sincil Bank.

They fell behind to a 55th minute penalty, but Courtney Senior stepped off the bench to equalise just four minutes after coming on as a substitute.

And when Lincoln had Michael Bostwick sent off for a foul as the last defender on 84 minutes, the U’s appeared favourites to go on and finish the job.

However, McGreal felt the way his side were unable to see out the game summed up their season and he promised changes in the summer.

He added: “Courtney came on and got involved straight away with a one-two and a lovely finish and we had chances to win it.

“The fact we didn’t take them sums us up and that’s frustrating.

“We will deal with it in the summer without a shadow of a doubt.

“We have the nucleus of a fantastic squad and I believe in what we are doing.

“There were nine to ten thousand there at Lincoln and our boys took it all in their stride; they thrived on it but it was a sucker to take a defeat.

“I was proud of the way we played but not to concede like that and lose the game.”