Jacob Murphy came back to haunt his former club as Colchester United were beaten 3-1 at home by promotion-chasing Coventry City at a rain-sodden Weston Homes Community Stadium this afternoon.

Murphy, who was on loan at the U's last season, scored twice as the U's slipped to a second successive league defeat.

Coventry started well and Jim O’Brien fired into the side netting early on for the visitors.

But Colchester looked dangerous in attack and took a 17th-minute lead through Macauley Bonne, who tapped in from two yards from Callum Harriott’s superb low cross for his fifth goal in two matches.

Coventry keeper Reice Charles-Cook parried George Moncur’s free-kick soon after while Marvin Sordell was desperately unlucky to see his low shot strike the inside of the post, roll along the line and away.

But Coventry equalised just after the half hour through Muphy, who finished clinically after U's defender Tom Eastman had only partially blocked Marc Antoine-Fortune’s low cross.

And Colchester went in at half-time trailing when Murphy pounced on Frankie Kent’s slip to bag his second of the game, following a quick free-kick.

Things got worse for Colchester just after half-time when Antoine-Fortune tapped into an empty net after keeper Jamie Jones had fumbled Ruben Lameiras’ low cross into his path.

Colchester brought on Gavin Massey and George Elokobi in the second half but created few clearcut chances in the second half, as the Coventry defence stood firm.

To their credit, the U's kept battling away in the rain until the end but it was to no avail, as Coventry claimed victory.

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