Colchester United assistant manager Richard Hall admitted their 3-2 home defeat against fellow strugglers Crawley Town was a "devastating setback".

The U's are now six points adrift of safety in League One, after slumping to a fourth successive defeat.

Sammie Szmodics gave Colchester an early lead but goals from Ryan Dickson and Gavin Tomlin turned the game around at half-time.

Colchester skipper David Fox levelled early in the second half with his first goal for more than four and a half years.

But former U's loanee Izale McLeod netted Crawley's winner with 15 minutes from the spot, after he had been brought down by keeper Sam Walker in the area.

Hall said: “It’s a devastating setback to lose.

“It was a game where we had the majority of the play but once again, it’s three preventable goals that have cost us.

“They had four chances but we gifted them three goals and the most disappointing thing is that it’s stuff that we had worked on during the week.

“It’s OK doing it in training but you have to do in matches.

“We knew what we were getting from Crawley and that we had to deal with the long ball and for the majority of the game, we did.

“But it was a couple of lapses of concentration that cost us and that has happened throughout the season."

For five pages of coverage of the U's game with Crawley Town, see Monday's Daily Gazette.