While Colchester United head coach John McGreal was pleased with the chances his team created in their Checkatrade Trophy tie with Reading Under-21s, he felt they should have scored more than the two goals they came away with.

The game ended in a 2-2 draw, before the U’s claimed an extra bonus point with a 6-5 win in a penalty shootout, but McGreal felt it should have been a win in the 90 minutes.

They did find the target thanks to strikes from Sammie Szmodics and Eoin McKeown but it was the missed chances that vexed the U’s boss.

He said: “I think if you look how we set ourselves up, we could be classed as an under-21s side ourselves, but I thought the players applied themselves really well.

“It was just wasteful really.

“We played some good football into a lot of final third entries and could really have scored six or seven rather than just the two we did.

“But we got on the end of a little fumble in the box to get the draw and then went an executed the penalties really well.

“There were numerous opportunities with balls flashing across the box.

“We asked the strikers and midfielders to get on the end of them and that’s all you can do is to keep asking the questions.

“We have done that, but we should have been scoring more goals than we did.”