HEAD coach John McGreal felt tonight’s last-gasp defeat against Charlton Athletic was “tough” on his Colchester United players.

The U’s conceded from almost the last kick of their pre-season friendly and slid to a 2-1 defeat.

Luke Norris had earlier given them the lead at the JobServe Community Stadium.

“It was tough but a great exercise,” said the U’s boss.

“It was always going to be a difficult session and we knew we’d get pulled around a bit, because they’ve got some fantastic players and quality throughout.

“You could see that in the first half but I felt our boys stood up to the test.

“We got a lot out of it, as we knew we would.

“We needed to defend a lot better than we did on Friday night (when losing 5-0 at home to Ipswich Town).

“I felt we did that, even though they had good possession at times.

“In the first half we defended resolutely and then played more of our football after the break.

“We adapted our system a bit to try and get a couple of boys up top and then went with our normal shape in the second half.

“We grew into the game and got a great goal.

“We looked comfortable but switched off and their equaliser came from nothing.

“To then concede again right at the end was obviously disappointing.

“A couple of switches in play have done for us and we need to keep our sharpness.

“We need to get back to basics in terms of stopping crosses.”

McGreal included a triallist in his starting line-up and it turned out the player in question was Jack Senior.

“Our recruitment department have brought Jack in,” added McGreal.

“He’s come on trial for a couple of days.

“I wasn’t here yesterday. I was at an LMA (League Managers’ Association) meeting.

“I knew he was coming in but I don’t know the full details (in terms of the player’s situation).”

Colchester play their last pre-season friendly at Dover Athletic on Saturday – a week before their first League Two contest, at home to Port Vale.

“There are still a few teething problems to resolve, with a lot of new players and young boys in the squad,” added McGreal.

“We’ve got an academy with lots of young players coming through and we have to give them minutes.

“Fitness-wise, we are where we should be but we still need to keep working hard on the training pitch.

“There’s still a bit of work to do but we’re gearing up for that first game and of course we go to Dover on Saturday.

“There’s a little bit of travelling involved, so we’ll have to adapt to that.

“It’s going to be a difficult game and a very different type of test.”