Ward disappointed with U's "lightweight" defending (From Gazette)

Ward disappointed with U's "lightweight" defending

9:43am Monday 20th February 2012 in Colchester Utd By Jonathan Waldron

Pushing on - Colchester's Ian Henderson (right) attempts to stop Yeovil goalscorer Dean Parrett during the U's 3-2 defeat at Huish Park. Picture: WARREN PAGE

Colchester United manager John Ward described his side’s defending as “lightweight” after they fell to a 3-2 defeat at Yeovil Town.

The U’s had gone in at half-time ahead at Huish Park, thanks to Steven Gillespie’s fifth goal in four matches.

But Colchester conceded three times in the space of 17 second-half minutes and although Martin Rowlands pulled a goal back for the visitors at the end, it was not enough to salvage a point.

U’s boss Ward felt his side did not work hard enough defensively for a crucial period in the second half, something that cost them the chance of taking anything meaningful from the game.

Ward said: “We looked like building on our half-time lead but our defending was lightweight in the second half.

“We’ve defended well in the last couple of games but we didn’t do that against Yeovil, as a team.

“I’m not looking at my back four or my goalkeeper; I’m looking at everybody because when we don’t have the ball, we all have to work on that.

“As slick as we were in the first half, we were as dull in the second half.

“We had a poor 15-minute spell where we conceded three goals and we defended quite lightly.

“When you come away from home and score two goals, you expect to take something away with you on the coach.

“We haven’t done that and that’s because we didn’t take our chances when we were looking good in the first half and we’ve conceded when we should have defended better.

“We gave away too many set plays by being dull in our football.”

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