Colchester United head coach John McGreal described his side’s 3-1 loss at Accrington Stanley on the opening day of the League Two season as a “bitter defeat”.

Sammie Szmodics’ late goal proved only a consolation for the U’s at the Wham Stadium, after goals from Rayden Jackson, Billy Kee and Omar Beckles had put Stanley in charge.

McGreal said: “It was a poor defeat.

“We’re upset for the fans and for ourselves.

“It’s a young team and a work in progress so we’ll be moving forward.

“It’s the first game – it’s a bitter defeat because you always want to get something out of it.

“Before they scored, we had two great opportunities to score but we haven’t defended well.

“We defended poorly and as it’s 2-0, we had another opportunity to score in the second half which we didn’t take and then we gave another poor goal away.

“It wasn’t good for us in both boxes.

“We’re not the smallest team with the personnel we have.

“They have a lad up front who backs in well and set-pieces were a little bit of a problem for us, which we need to address.

“It’s about taking responsibility and if you mark your man, you mark him.

“There was some good play in between especially in the second half.

“We threw a little bit of caution to the wind and made our subs early to try and make a statement in the game.

“We’ll try and build on the second-half performance but I’m disappointed for the supporters that have come here that we haven’t got the result we wanted.”

McGreal was pleased with the second-half display of Szmodics, who came off the bench to score and put in a lively performance as Colchester desperately tried to find a route back into the game.

He added: “Credit to Sam – he got his goal at the end from a ball from Mikael (Mandron), who I thought was very good for us today.”

McGreal added that Tom Eastman suffered an ankle injury in the first half of the Accrington defeat but it is not the same ankle he injured, last season.