Kevin Keen admitted Colchester United’s derby defeat at rivals Southend United was a “heroic failure” after the ten men were beaten 3-0 at Roots Hall.

The U’s were forced to play for an hour of the game with a numerical disadvantage, after Alex Gilbey was given his marching orders for a strong challenge on the Shrimpers’ Ryan Leonard, nine minutes before half-time.

Colchester battled well after that but former U’s midfielder Anthony Wordsworth came off the bench to break their resistance with a fine strike, with eight minutes remaining.

And further goals from Adam Barrett and Sam McQueen before the end sealed the Shrimpers’ victory and ensured the U’s long wait for a league win continued.

Keen said: “When you play with ten men for that long, it’s tough.

“I’m afraid it’s another heroic failure – the ten men were fantastic and probably you wouldn’t have known had you not seen the sending off that it was 11 versus ten.

“I thought that we were fantastic and still very much in the game but eventually it caught up with us.

“We did alright again – in the first half we created chances with ten men, free-kicks, corners and efforts on goal and defended manfully but unfortunately we were on the wrong end of a defeat.

“The players are absolutely devastated – we were in there chatting for a long time about what we can do to try and turn it around and a lot of the players have contributed on things we can try and do better.

“We’ll work hard this week and go again because we have two big home games.”

Keen admitted Gilbey’s challenge on Leonard – which led to the Southend midfielder being withdrawn at half-time – was a “poor” one.

But he felt referee Oliver Langford was quick to brandish the red card that led to the U’s midfielder being sent off for the first time in his professional career and going for an early bath.

Keen added: “I thought it was a poor tackle – I’ve only seen it a couple of times but the referee couldn’t wait to get his red card out of his pocket quick enough.

“He obviously thought it was a red card, so there you go.”

For five pages of Colchester United coverage, see Monday’s Daily Gazette.