JOHN McGreal was disappointed with his Colchester United side's second-half display after they were beaten 3-1 at Stevenage this afternoon.

The U's had gone in level at the break at Broadhall Way, after former Colchester striker Kurtis Guthrie netted four minutes before the interval to cancel out Sammie Szmodics' second-minute opener.

But after Luke Norris had come close to restoring the U's lead just after half-time, an 82nd-minute penalty from Ben Kennedy and Emmanuel Sonupe's strike two minutes later sealed the points for the hosts.

McGreal said: “We started the game so well.

"The early goal gave us a good base to start but we were really wasteful for the next 20 minutes, despite getting at their back four.

“But for the last hour we were really really poor.

“We gave them a few facts at half-time, because we sensed what was coming, having given away a poor goal from a set piece (Guthrie’s equaliser).

“But we then started poorly again in the second half.

“I felt overall we should have scored more goals in that first half-hour.

"We played some terrific stuff early on, but we then dropped a little bit for the last 15 minutes of the half."

McGreal was disappointed with the referee's decision to award Stevenage a penalty, given for substitute Brennan Dickenson's foul on Steve Seddon.

He said: “It was a foul, but it was definitely outside the box."