STEVE Ball admits it is frustrating that Colchester United must now wait a whole week to try and put their agonising defeat at Newport County behind them.

But the U’s head coach insists he will be putting the extra time to good use on the training pitch – with set-piece work high on the list of his priorities.

Colchester were due to take on Scunthorpe United tomorrow night, in League Two.

But the game was called off after a number of the Iron’s playing and backroom staff tested positive for Covid-19.

As a result, Colchester must now wait until next Tuesday for their next game, a home clash with Stevenage at the JobServe Community Stadium.

The U’s will be looking to bounce back, after a stoppage-time Padraig Amond goal condemned to defeat at leaders Newport, after Jevani Brown’s 89th-minute equaliser had cancelled out Scott Twine’s long-range strike.

Ball said: “It’s a bad thing not having a game (against Scunthorpe) but it wasn’t in the 91st minute, as I was happy with getting a little bit of rest into the legs.

“After what happened, it’s just one of those where you just want to get back out and play.

“But I won’t be too disappointed about it.

“We’ll go away and work on these set pieces – we need to be stronger, firmer and clear our lines and in the first place, get our contacts better.

“This league is full of set pieces with corners, free-kicks long throws and it’s incoming - you need to focus and concentrate and do your job.

“We need to take the positives out of the last half hour (at Newport) which were really good and crack on.

“It’s a work in progress.

“We had two back-to-back wins and however we’ve won those games, we’ve won them.

“In the 92nd minute we’re drawing 1-1 at the league leaders and conceded a sloppy last-minute goal which has given us nothing, which hurts.

“It’s happened a couple of times now with last-minute goals in the short time that I’ve been doing the job, with Oldham at home and now Newport.

“I’m sure there’ll be more situations where there are first-minute goals here and last-minute goals there but it’s just tough to take.”

Colchester were second best before half-time at Newport and had trailed to Twine’s spectacular strike but improved following the introduction of substitutes Jevani Brown and Kwame Poku, on the hour mark.

The pair replaced skipper Harry Pell and Luke Norris and combined for the U’s equaliser, only for Amond to nick it for the hosts.

Ball added: “I think the changes were good changes and I’m sure the players are all together on that, because any changes I make are for the benefit of the team.

“The changes weren’t made as far as poor performances from Luke (Norris) or Harry (Pell) or Callum (Harriott).

“They were just positive changes to try and get a foothold back into the game and to get some ball deeper to get into our forwards.

“Luke will feel he hasn’t had the service at times and I agree with that.”