Colchester United manager Joe Dunne said his side's home defeat against struggling Crewe Alexandra was hard to take.

The U's lost 2-1 to the Railwaymen, after Luke Garbutt's deflected opener was cancelled out by two goals in the space of three second-half minutes from Chuks Aneke and Tom Hitchcock.

Dunne said: "We gave them a chance to get back in and they took it.

"That's sport and we were at the receiving end and it's very hard to take.

"We've ended the year on a bit of a low but we had a couple of highs before that and that's us.

"Anyone who's followed the club through its existence will know that only twice in our history we've found some consistency.

"We have to pick ourselves up and crack on, which we will do."

For a full match report, pictures and much more reaction to Colchester's game with Crewe, see Monday's Gazette.