Colchester United boss Tony Humes said that 1-0 defeat to Coventry City was a poor performance all round.
Humes said to the Press Association: "It was a poor performance all round.
"Coventry came to make it difficult for us which we expected - they're a big, strong and physical team and we weren't good enough to break them down.
"We huffed and puffed in the first half and we had a plan to move the ball quickly, but we didn't do that quickly enough.
"I will give Coventry a lot of credit because they did stop us playing, but we weren't clever enough or didn't have enough brightness about us to break them down.
"The biggest thing when that's the case is not to give away sloppy goals, which is what we did.
"Before the goal it was quite even, but when they scored it killed us and by the end, they could have scored three or four.
"We have young players and they make mistakes because they're learning the game, but they've got to take responsibility."