LUKE Prosser admits Colchester United only have themselves to blame after crashing to a 3-0 defeat at Swindon Town.

But the U’s skipper insists they cannot afford to dwell on the disappointment, ahead of two crucial home games in quick succession.

Colchester dropped out of the League Two play-off places following their reverse at the County Ground, their first defeat in five matches.

Swindon scored twice in less than two minutes just before half-time through Canice Carroll and Ipswich Town loanee Luke Woolfenden, before Kyle Bennett wrapped up the hosts’ win in the second half.

Prosser said: “It was unusual for us to make those errors, especially on the back of a very good month.

“For 35 minutes or so, we’re comfortable but then we gifted them two goals and overall, it was a disappointing day at the office.

“They capitalised on our mistakes and punished us, so we’ve only got ourselves to blame.

“It’s not like us and 14 clean sheets (this season) is not a bad feat.

“We thought if we got the first goal in the second half, it might have been a different game as we know we can score goals.

“It wasn’t a good day but we can’t dwell on it – we have to move on.

“It came on the back of a good month - there’s still five more games in March and we have to try and be positive.

“It was a disappointing day and it wasn’t good enough but we have two massive home games now so we have to be positive.

“Generally, we’ve backed up defeats with three points so that’s what we’ll be looking for at the weekend.

“Everyone’s raring to go straight away and we’d have been desperate for a Tuesday night game, on the back of a defeat.”

Colchester now lie ten points off the automatic promotion places in League Two and outside of the top seven, on goal difference.

“Automatic promotion could be tough now but you never know,” said Prosser, who has previously won League Two promotion with Southend United and Northampton Town.

“We’ll take it a game at a time.

“If it’s going to be the play-offs, it’s all about momentum.

“We’ve got 11 games to go and there are a lot of points to play for and anything can happen.

“We’re just going to take it a game at a time and it’s a massive game against Newport and then following that up against Forest Green.”

Colchester were without several key players for the Swindon game, including leading scorer Sammie Szmodics.

“We were missing a few of the boys,” added Prosser.

“We were without Sammie (Szmodics) and we’ve been missing Pelle (Harry Pell) and (Tom) Lapslie over the last couple of weeks.

“But last month, the boys who’ve come in have been fantastic.

“We had a good enough XI out there but we’ve made individual errors and conceded sloppy goals.”