Colchester United's relegation fears deepened this afternoon when they were beaten 3-0 at Scunthorpe United.

Three goals in the space of eight second-half minutes condemned the U's to another league defeat, after they were comprehensively beaten at Glanford Park.

Colchester's first-half display was good and they were a little unlucky not to be ahead at the break.

But Scunthorpe clinically took their chances in the second half to claim victory and leave the U's deep in relegation trouble after one league win in 18 matches.

Colchester started with a 4-3-3 formation, with Marvin Sordell starting on the right and George Moncur on the left, with Chris Porter deployed as their main forward.

The home side started the brighter of the two sides, with Luke Williams pulling the strings for the Iron early on.

But the U’s warmed to the task as the first half wore on and begun to increasingly look more dangerous as an attacking force.

Sordell was pushed into a more central position with Joe Edwards, recalled to the Colchester starting line-up, switching to a right-midfield berth.

It proved effective for the U’s and the Scunthorpe defence found it hard at times to deal with Sordell’s link-up play with Porter.

Although the U’s were restricted to mainly half chances in and around the penalty area, they looked the more likely side to break the deadlock before the break.

Owen Garvan and Alex Gilbey both went close with long-range efforts while George Moncur’s close-range attempt was blocked well by David Mirfin in the area.

And although Alex Wynter was forced to head Scunthorpe captain Stephen Dawson’s effort off the line late in the half, the U’s were the better side in the opening 45 minutes.

However, Scunthorpe started the second half well and the U's had a let off when Stephen Dawson struck a post, five minutes after half-time.

And Colchester fell behind soon after when Tom Hopper slotted home after left-back Conor Townsend had benefited from David Mirfin's assist and crossed.

The U's fell further behind little more than three minutes later when Paddy Madden's powerful effort flew in off the underside of the crossbar.

It left Colchester with it all to do and things went from bad to worse for the visitors in the 68th minute when Madden finished well, after bursting into the area and finishing low and hard past Jake Kean.

Macauley Bonne, Darren Ambrose and Gavin Massey were all sent on by the U's after that, in a bid to salvage something from the game, But they were unable to grab a consolation and Colchester's long wait for a league win continued.

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