Disappointed John Ward admitted his Colchester United side are not clinical enough in front of goal after seeing them lose 2-0 at Notts County tonight.

The U's fell to a disappointing defeat at Meadow Lane, following goals from Craig Westcarr and a Nathan Clarke own goal.

David Mooney hit the woodwork and Kayode Odejayi also came close, in the opening minutes of the game.

And those misses eventually came back to haunt Colchester, after they were unable to find a route back in the game, despite a better second-half display.

The U's have now gone more than nine hours without an away goal and boss Ward said his side need to improve in front of goal.

Ward said: “We're not clinical enough; it's not a new phrase – I've said it before.

“We're disappointed about the evening; I can't grumble about the result.

“The first half was disappointing but the second half was better.

“We started really well and we could have had two goals in the first ten minutes of the game.

“We conceded two poor goals after that and they were a wee bit easy for the opposition - that knocks you down a little bit.

“We made a couple of changes at half-time to get back on it and stop feeling sorry for ourselves.

“Lloyd James and Kem Izzet both made a difference when they came on and toughened it up a little bit.

“We had more of the ball, without hurting the opposition too much.”

Colchester made four changes to their starting line-up tonight.

But manager Ward refused to use that as an excuse for his team's disappointing display, at Meadow Lane.

“Pat (Baldwin) has injured an Achilles and Steven (Gillespie) is feeling his hamstring,” said Ward.

“Ashley Vincent was unwell prior to getting on the coach coming out and Ian Henderson was unwell in the dressing room.

“I'm not grumbling about it though, because we should have a squad that can deal with those things.”

For a full match report and pictures from Colchester's game at Notts County, see Wednesday's Gazette.