HAYDEN Mullins was left frustrated by the ‘sloppy’ late goal his Colchester United side conceded after they were beaten 1-0 at Cheltenham Town, this afternoon.

The U’s looked like they were heading for a point at the Jonny-Rocks Stadium until Conor Thomas struck an 83rd-minute winner for the Robins.

It means Colchester, who have two games remaining, must wait a little longer to secure their League Two status following wins for Southend and Grimsby today.

U's interim boss Mullins said: “We were very disappointed with the goal, which was really sloppy.

“We knew they were a team with throw-ons, corner routines, set plays and things like that and we wanted to set up to be better than that.

“I think the game was decided on that.

“In the first half, we did what we wanted to do and we set up well.

“We looked like we had energy getting up the pitch, albeit with not too many clearcut chances.

“We wanted to address that in the second half but they pushed us back, in the second half.

“They came out for the second half in the frontfoot – they leave a lot of long balls on you and they leave it in areas which they want and they clear them out for a throw-on, which they want.

“I think they want that more than the corner at times!

“It was a real stop-start game but we knew that and we tried to set up right.

“We spoke about in the first half about getting up the pitch and working some end product, with our crosses and shots and try to put them under pressure.

“That’s what we spoke about – we wanted to try and get in their half and get into areas where we could hurt them which I felt we could have definitely been better at today.”

Colchester had gone into the game at Cheltenham following back-to-back wins, which have put them on the verge of League Two safety.

“We wanted to come here and get a result,” said Mullins.

“The longer it went 0-0, the boys became a little more anxious knowing that they were holding on to get a result.

“I think in the 75th minute, a couple of them asked over to see how long was left and that’s not quite what we wanted.

“We wanted to keep playing all the way through and the longer I think it was 0-0, the more we started slashing out our clearances.”