John McGreal was disappointed his side were not awarded a penalty in the closing stages of their 1-1 draw with title-chasing Doncaster Rovers.

Substitute Rekeil Pyke tumbled under the challenge of Rovers defender Craig Alcock late on at the Weston Homes Community Stadium but referee David Webb waved away the U's claims, leaving head coach McGreal frustrated.

He said: "I thought we finished the game really well and looking back on the video, it's a penalty.

"I went to see the referee afterwards and he seems to think that Rek initiates the foul first but it's two boys going for the ball and they're going to be grappling each other.

"Rek gets across him and he outweighs him - it's a penalty.

"But you're looking to win games of football and you would rather that the refs and the officials had nothing to do and we win the game on our own."

Colchester had led through Brennan Dickenson's impressive 16th-minute strike and also hit the post through Chris Porter.

But Mathieu Baudry levelled things up just before half-time and that was the way it stayed.

The U's remain two points off the play-off places with four games remaining, after drawing with already-promoted Doncaster.

McGreal added: “We made a great start and we keep doing that at home – we now have to mirror that away from home.

“Hopefully, we’ll do that on Monday but it was a terrific strike again by Brennan (Dickenson).

“He’s scored 12 goals and so many assists and at the moment, it looks as though the ball is past the keeper as soon as he makes a strike because he’s got such a powerful left foot.

“We hit the post with a great strike from Chris Porter and I thought we were terrific in the first half.

“Conceding just before half-time meant we had a bit of a different team talk though and that was disappointing.”

Colchester are next in action on Monday when they travel to play Morecambe, kick-off 3pm.