Humes apologises to U's fans after Dons thrashing

Colchester suffered a fourth successive league defeat after being put to the sword by the Dons, at stadiummk.

Afobe hit a hat-trick and Dele Alli, Ben Reeves and Lee Hodson were also on target for the home side against the U’s, who had debutant Will Packwood sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity.

U’s boss Humes said: “I can only apologise to the travelling fans, because we haven’t given them anything.

“We were weaker than them in every department and we certainly weren’t as strong as we have been.

“The only bright spot was probably in the first minute when we created an opportunity that hit the post and that was it.”

Colchester almost scored in the opening minutes when Dons defender Kyle McFadzean’s sliced clearance came back off his own post.

But the U’s were second best in every department after that, after they suffered their heaviest defeat of the season.

“We gave Milton Keynes too much respect and too much time on the ball and they were just better than us,” admitted Humes.

“You have to put your hands up and say they were better in every position and we didn’t get close to them all game.

“We didn’t work hard enough either individually or collectively and that responsibility comes down to me, because I put them out there but I expect more than that, in terms of being together and working hard.

“We worked all week on trying to keep the game narrow and stop them playing and we didn’t do it.

“What we worked on wasn’t carried out and we didn’t have any quality on the ball either, which is our strength.

“The possession game is what we work on but we couldn’t keep possession of the ball and we kept giving it away.

“The more you do that, the more you put yourselves under pressure and Milton Keynes are a good side who picked us off and thoroughly deserved their win.

“We have a lot of work to do because we have to pick them up.”

For five pages of coverage on the U’s game against MK Dons, see Monday’s Daily Gazette.