JOHN McGreal admits he wants to see his Colchester United be more ruthless in front of goal following their League Cup defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion.

But the U’s head coach is pleased with the number of opportunities his side have created, in their opening two games of the new season.

Colchester bowed out of the League Cup at the first-round stage for the sixth successive season after losing 4-0 to their Championship hosts, at the Amex.

But the U’s held the Seagulls for more than an hour and had their opportunities to score as they did in their League Two curtain-raiser at Hartlepool United, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

McGreal said: “We need to be more clinical in front of goal – that’s the one from the last two away games.

“We’ve been in really good positions to score goals and win the games.

“We just maybe need to take a little bit of a breath at times and actually hit the target – that’s the main thing.

“The good thing is that we’re creating opportunities and it’s only a matter of time before it does click.”

McGreal made seven changes to his side for the Brighton game, handing Doug Loft, Brennan Dickenson and Dillon Barnes their Colchester debuts.

The U’s head coach remained tight-lipped on whether any of the players who came into his starting line-up at the Amex have played their way into his plans for their home game against Cambridge United, on Saturday.

“Possibly – but I’m not going to give anything away,” said McGreal.

“I like to keep my cards close to my chest and I’ll speak to Bally (Steve Ball) about that.

“We made changes (against Brighton) but we’ve had that competition throughout the pre-season and those boys want to play.

“They’ve been given an opportunity – I wasn’t looking towards Saturday but you’d think after 65 minutes, they would have given me a bit of a headache (ahead of the Cambridge game).

“I’m sure in training today and tomorrow the lads will want to get the Brighton game out of their system.

“It’s a big game against Cambridge on Saturday which we’re all looking forward to so hopefully we can put things right.

“I know straight away because of the character of the lads that they’ll come in and they’ll be chomping at the bit.

"I know that because that’s what happened already through pre-season after the defeats against Ipswich and Palace when we did particularly well.”