COLCHESTER United boss Tony Humes felt there was little between his side and League One title hopefuls MK Dons, in tonight’s 1-0 defeat at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

But he admitted one of his players “shirked responsibility” for the winning goal, netted just before half-time by Dele Alli.

“There was nothing in the game, right from the start,” said Humes.

“MK Dons may have had a lot of possession but they never massively hurt us.

“We showed them a bit too much respect in the first half, but in the second we got among them a bit more, without creating too much.

“We’ve got to have a bit more penetration in the final third, though, which we didn’t have tonight.

“MK Dons dealt with everything we threw at them and, overall, I was pleased with how we contained them.

“However, someone shirked their responsibility for the goal.

“I’m not going to point the finger and blame anyone, because that’s not what we’re about.

“But we haven’t got much from our home games, so knew how important it was to be collectively tight.

“It hasn’t happened for us tonight but we’ve just got to get on with it.

“We’ve got to go again at the weekend believing we can get something from the game.”

Colchester had made a bright start, thanks to efforts from Gavin Massey and Chris Porter.

But it was the visitors, having gone close through Jordan Spence’s header, who took the lead on 44 minutes.

A corner was only half-cleared and played back into the area.

With the home defence calling for offside, Alli ran through unchallenged and had the simple task of slotting past goalkeeper Sam Walker.

Colchester continued to give their fans hope after the break, not least on the hour-mark when Massey’s spectacular volley from the right was palmed away by the diving McLoughlin.

But the Dons, who knew they could go second, always looked capable of a second and Carl Baker’s low drive forced a save from Walker.

However, there were no more goals and it was the visitors left celebrating at the final whistle.