MATT Bloomfield admitted his side 'shot themselves in the foot' after they were beaten 2-1 by AFC Wimbledon.

The U's had led through John Akinde's penalty but Josh Davison equalised just after the hour mark, before Ethan Chislett netted an 89th-minute winner for the visitors.

Colchester switched off defensively for both of the goals they conceded and were ultimately made to pay the price against a Wimbledon side who are now ten games unbeaten.

The defeat leaves the U's two points above the League Two relegation zone and boss Bloomfield was disappointed with the result.

He said: “We did the hard work and we got ourselves in front.

“We were 1-0 up and so close to scoring a second when we hit the post.

“At that point, we felt like we were comfortable.

“I kind of feel we shot ourselves in the foot with two goals from restarts and the lack of discipline in those sort of situations.

“We’ve worked on them a lot since I’ve been here and I felt like we had it in control over the last couple of weeks but unfortunately tonight, it’s hurt us.

Gazette:

“Those restart and set-piece situations are really important in any game and we need to tighten up in those situations.

“Their goals were two situations where we should still be in control and be organised.

“We then had one cleared off the line at the end, so it’s small margins that decide so many football matches and they went against us tonight.

"Apart from Barrow away where we go 3-0 down, I think we've been in every other game.

"We haven't picked up as many points as we'd have liked, of course not.

"But it's another game where we've gone 1-0 up and not got anything out of it."

After a goal-less first half, Colchester had taken the lead five minutes after the break through Akinde's spot-kick, awarded after Wimbledon keeper Nik Tzanev had fouled Samson Tovide.

Gazette:

Akinde then struck a post with a fine effort, before Johnnie Jackson's side came back into the contest.

"I need to be pragmatic and realistic and since I've been in the building, I've seen defeats and wins in the same light in terms of watching it back through unemotional eyes," said Bloomfield.

"There were loads of good points.

"I thought John and Samson until they ran out of legs were a real big threat for us.

"I thought we were organised.

"The first half wasn't much of a spectacle and there wasn't much in the game really but in the second half, we came out and we really attacked them as we asked the boys to do.

Gazette:

"I wanted to do that, in front of our home fans and we got our noses in front.

"As for the width of the goalpost we go 2-0 up but unfortunately, we're talking about a defeat when it could have been totally different."