Colchester United manager Tony Humes urged his players to keep believing in themselves after they suffered the disappointment of bowing out of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy on penalties tonight.

The U's were beaten 4-2 in a shoot-out against Gillingham, after the second-round tie had finished 3-3 after normal time.

Drey Wright, Sanchez Watt and substitute Freddie Sears were on target for the U's at the Weston Homes Community Stadium but Colchester went out on spot-kicks.

George Moncur and Tom Eastman both saw their penalties saved by Gillingham goalkeeper Stuart Nelson, who then converted the winning penalty to see the visitors through to the area quarter-finals.

Humes said: "We kept believing in what we were doing and passing the ball and that's what we have to do.

“We could have done with a cup win and a home win, because we haven’t won here this season.

“But I’m quite happy with the overall performance.

“The movement was fantastic but we have to be better when we’re not in possession.

“We had four clean sheets in five games but in our last two games, we’ve conceded too many goals.

“We have to keep believing that the way we’re playing is the right way to play, because there’s some fantastic stuff out there and we’ll take the positives out of it."

For a match report and pictures from the U's game with Gillingham, see Wednesday's Daily Gazette.