Colchester United boss Ben Garner on Morecambe defeat

The U's produced a largely lacklustre and disjointed display, as JJ McKiernan's hat-trick secured the Shrimps a deserved win at the JobServe Community Stadium.

Morecambe had played the game with ten men for more than an hour, after defender James Connolly was sent off for an off-the-ball incident after tangling with U's striker Samson Tovide.

READ MORE: U's slump to demoralising home defeat to ten-man Morecambe

Cameron McGeehan netted a consolation for Colchester and Noah Chilvers missed a stoppage-time penalty for the hosts, on what was a miserable afternoon for the U's.

Garner said: “It wasn’t good enough, frankly.

“Right from the start of the game, we were second best.

“We weren’t competitive, we weren’t intense, people not doing their jobs, people not doing their jobs off a set piece cost us a goal.

“They then get the red card and we finish the first half well and then in the second half, we don’t do what we spoke about doing at half-time.

“The players want to go and do their own thing and so the team shape goes and we let two really poor goals in and give ourselves a mountain to climb.

“I apologise to the supporters as it was nowhere near good enough or acceptable enough."

READ MORE: Colchester 1 Morecambe 3 - as it happened

Colchester's home defeat to Morecambe leaves them 21st in League Two, three points above the relegation zone.

Garner said: “It’s a million miles away from where it should be but we’ve all seen how good it can be and how good it has been.

“It’s very frustrating for me and it must be very frustrating for everyone that there’s no level of consistency or minimum standard.

"The players need to decide what they want to do, where they want to be as a group, how do they want to push forward because at the moment, some games it's there and other games, it's nowhere near."

Two of Morecambe's three goals came from set pieces, adding to the U's frustrations.

Garner added: "We've been really good (with set pieces) up until Crewe and if you go from Crewe onwards, we concede a long throw at Crewe from people not doing their jobs and the same at Newport.

"The third goal today was from our corner and I don't know what we were doing there - we do our prep from corners that we're going to do and players seem to do their own thing.

"It wasn't a team performance and there were too many playing for themselves and they'll be some changes next week, for sure."