Frankie Kent admits Colchester United’s failure to make this season’s League Two play-offs has left everyone disappointed.

The U’s go into tomorrow’s final game of the season at Exeter City sitting 12 points adrift of the top-seven teams.

A run of three straight wins in late March and early April gave John McGreal’s side a fighting chance of securing a play-off place.

But they have fallen away since then and head into their game against the Grecians at St James Park on the back of a four-game winless run.

And U’s defender Kent said: “I’ve said it from day one that our target was to get in to the play-offs and we’ve obviously fallen short of that target and everyone is disappointed.

“I felt that we had a good run up to it and we had a chance about two or three weeks ago.

“But losing the games that we did obviously didn’t help.

“We’ll try and bounce back, next season.

“No-one in our league has made us look out of place.

“That’s something we’ve spoken about and it makes it even more disappointing not to make it.

“You look at the top three or four excluding probably Exeter and we’ve been beaten both times by them.

“It’s been very disappointing, as we’ve played well against the top teams.

“We know what we were capable of but we’ve just fallen short.

“There’s definitely a feeling of disappointment that we haven’t pushed ourselves in there.

“It’s been small margins in every game and that’s nicking a goal here or there or not conceding one.

“That’s been the story of our season – everyone is disappointed but we’re looking to end it on a high.

“We’d like to go to Exeter knowing that they’re in the play-offs and try and get a good result and end it on a high.”

Kent will be hoping to retain his place in Colchester’s starting line-up at Exeter tomorrow, having returned to McGreal’s side for their 0-0 draw against Swindon Town last weekend following an absence of seven matches.

The 22-year-old has made a total of 40 league and cup appearances for the U’s in the current campaign but admits it has been a ‘stop-start’ season.

“It’s the most amount of games that I’ve played in a single season,” said the former Colchester academy player.

“I dropped out and the timing wasn’t great for me, because I couldn’t get back into the team because they were doing so well.

“That’s something you have to get on with but it’s been a bit of a stop-start season that hasn’t really come to much.”