DANNY Cowley admits Colchester United's 2-1 defeat to League Two leaders Stockport County came down to two crucial moments.

An Owen Goodman error gifted the Hatters the lead through Nick Powell's goal and although Cameron McGeehan equalised for the U's just before half-time, Paddy Madden scored what proved to be the visitors' winner on the hour mark.

Colchester were left to rue McGeehan's penalty being saved by Stockport keeper Ben Hinchliffe midway through the second half, as they fell to defeat leaving them a point adrift of League Two safety with five games remaining.

READ MORE: Match report as Colchester are beaten by leaders Stockport

U's head coach Cowley said: "We've lost the game because of two crucial moments.

“The ball hasn’t quite rolled for us tonight.

“We’ve taken the best team in the league by a significant distance all the way and given them a really good game and arguably, been the better team in the second half.

“But you can’t legislate for the two moments that happened.

“They do happen – there’s no recriminations, there’s no individual blame, it’s always a collective effort.

Gazette:

“I was proud of the team today, I was proud of the response that we showed after Saturday (against Wrexham) when we were really disappointed with ourselves and rightly so.

“We beat ourselves in the last half hour in that game but tonight we showed resilience and determination.

“It was a really difficult moment for the team after conceding the first goal and you can easily go under in the situation we're in but we didn’t and we responded really well.

“I’m really disappointed that we haven’t taken any points but I was proud of the group and what it represents.

READ MORE: Colchester United 1 Stockport County 2 - as it happened

"This is a great football club and it means so much to the people.

"I was proud of the way the players represented our supporters tonight.

"I thought we were a real handful for them all night - we played on the front foot.

"Early on, we had some tactical issues and were able to resolve them and changed the way that we pressed and that allowed us to get a much better foothold in the game."

Colchester fell behind on the half hour when goalkeeper Goodman allowed Powell's hopeful effort to squirm under his body and into the net.

"These things happen," said Cowley.

"It's probably not for us to talk in the media about it.

Gazette:

"Owen's going to be a really good goalkeeper and there's no doubt in my mind that he'll go on and have a brilliant career and it will be because of moments like this.

"This is how a young player grows and it will be painful for him tonight and painful for the team but I'd rather look at the positives.

"He's a young goalkeeper who makes that mistake in a really important game but he came back and his performance in the next 60-70 minutes was calm, assured and I thought he executed really well from there on in.

"That is why I know he's going to be a really good goalkeeper."

On McGeehan's penalty miss, Colchester's third of the season, Cowley added: "It's something that we practice and we work on but we're not quite executing in the game situation.

"I thought Cameron McGeehan was excellent tonight - he was everywhere, he drove the energy of the team and played with real power."