COLCHESTER United head coach Matty Etherington insists there were plenty of positives to take from his side's performance against in-form Barrow despite their 4-1 home defeat this afternoon.

The U's were beaten for the first time at the JobServe Community Stadium under Etherington, after conceding three late goals.

Colchester had led through Cameron McGeehan's first-half opener.

But Barrow levelled early in the second half through Will Greenidge's own goal and after Jayden Fevrier had been sent off for a second bookable offence in the 85th minute, George Ray's brace and a Zach Mitchell own goal in stoppage time condemned the U's to a painful defeat.

READ MORE: Match report as U's are beaten at home by Barrow

Etherington said: “It was a disappointing afternoon but in terms of the performance, there was plenty to like out there.

“I’m finding it hard to be positive after we’ve lost 4-1 but just watching stuff back, there was some good stuff by us.

“At 1-0 and at 1-1 we had really good chances to win the game.

Gazette:

“It’s never a sending off – I’ve watched it back and they seemed to be dictated to by their (Barrow) staff at half-time and then that carried on in the second half, which is disappointing.

“We created lots of good chances against a Barrow team who are sitting in the play-offs at the minute, some of the stuff was good.

“Defending set pieces is an area where we need to get better in.

"Their first two goals had an element of luck to them and fell to their players at the right time whereas a couple didn’t fall to us but that’s football.

READ MORE: Colchester 1 Barrow 4 - as it happened

"We conceded two late goals at the end when we were down to ten men and we were chasing and that can happen - I don't like them happening but they can happen.

"People will look at the scores tonight and will be thinking 'Colchester got a hammering' but that definitely wasn't the case.

"Ultimately, that was the scoreline and we have to deal with it and move on."