Colchester United boss Ben Garner on AFC Wimbledon defeat

Two second-half goals from James Tilley condemned the U's to a disappointing defeat, in their first home League Two game of the season at the JobServe Community Stadium.

While Johnnie Jackson's side were impressive, Colchester struggled to make an impact and boss Garner did not hide behind any excuses when assessing his side's performance, describing it as an 'awful evening all round' for his team.

READ MORE: Disappointing U's are beaten at home by AFC Wimbledon 

Garner said: “There’s no sugarcoating that – it was absolutely nowhere near good enough.

“We didn’t work hard enough, we didn’t compete enough, we were second best and Wimbledon thoroughly deserved to win.

“I’m scratching my head a little bit as to where that’s come from and why we were that way.

“We got bullied to be honest.

“They out-worked us, they out-fought us; I think we have too many at the moment who think they can just turn up and play and it’s easy and it’s not.

“It’s League Two and you’ve got to scrap, you’ve got to fight and you’ve got to work as the baseline.

“They’ve had 21 shots on our goal and that’s a million miles away from where it should be.

READ MORE: U's 0 AFC Wimbledon 2 - as it happened

“Owen (Goodman) did pretty well again tonight and I thought young Jayden (Fevrier) was the only outfield player that was at the level expected and that’s not good enough.

"You can't have two players turn up and hit the levels expected.

"The intensity of the game, the commitment and with the ball as well...we've spoken about being brave and we've done that in pre-season - yeah, brilliant.

"But we haven't done it in the league games so far and there's a lot of work to be done, that's for sure."

Colchester came in at half-time with the game goal-less and although Colchester goalkeeper Owen Goodman had made saves to deny Tilley and Omar Bugiel, the hosts had their chances, too.

John Akinde had a shot saved by Dons keeper Alex Bass, while Joe Taylor's low shot from the edge of the area grazed a post.

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The U's made changes at half-time and sent on Matt Jay for Mauro Bandeira but they were behind early in the second half to Tilley's strike and the former Crawley Town player sealed the Dons' victory with another goal, late on.

"We started the half really well and there were a few choice words, at half-time," said Garner.

"We made some changes and we actually started the second half really well.

"We were on the front foot and got some good opportunities, gained some territory and got in their final third a few times and we let in a really poor goal.

"We let in a really poor second goal and it was an awful evening all round, if I'm honest."