Phil Parkinson blamed lethargy, injury and illness for Colchester United's lack-lustre Bank Holiday Monday defeat at Hartlepool.
The north-easterners won 2-1 at Victoria Park, Colchester's goal coming from a Joe Keith free-kick in the dying seconds, and the U's boss lost no time in pointing his finger at the reasons for the defeat.
He said: "I know it sounds like I'm making excuses, but we were down to the bare bones and Gavin Johnson had to play despite being up all night with sickness and diarrhoea.
"I thought there were two very tired teams out there and our lads gave their all.
"You can only get away with it for so long when you've got a small squad and I was very disappointed to come all the way up to Hartlepool and lose.
"Take four or five players out of any squad in this league and it will have a major effect, but I've got no arguments. My lads worked as hard as they could and I thought Ben May and Craig Fagan looked dangerous up front throughout.
"Unfortunately we didn't have a lot on the bench to change things around."
Parkinson went on: "The game had 0-0 written all over it until Hartlepool scored. It was played at a very slow pace and they were clearly lifted by their first goal.
"I was confident we could get something out of the game right up to the point where we conceded the first goal from a defensive mistake."
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Published Tuesday, August 31, 2004
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