Colchester United head coach John McGreal admitted conceding a late equaliser to draw 1-1 at Morecambe this afternoon was “devastating”.

The U’s looked like they were on their way to claiming three precious points in their quest for the League Two play-offs, after Richard Brindley had given them a first-half lead at the Globe Arena.

But with the clock ticking down, former Colchester defender Michael Rose netted from the spot after Antony Evans had been fouled by U’s substitute Alex Wynter in the area to rescue a point for Morecambe and deny the visitors a valuable win.

The draw means Colchester remain two points off the play-off places in League Two with now three games remaining and boss McGreal admitted it was a disappointing outcome.

McGreal said: “It was a poor game really and it played into our hands, thinking that we were going to get a scrappy 1-0.

“We had a chance to put it in the far corner but we decided to put it in the box for some unknown reason and we get done.

“We had two lads go for the same ball, it ricocheted to one of them, we dived in in the box and it was just a catalogue really, from when we got the corner, which is really, really disappointing after the effort that the players have put in.

“We knew what type of game it was going to be – it wasn’t going to be your passing game with the quality of the pitch and the lads did well in a scrappy game.

“We did a good number on them as such and limited them and to concede like that was poor.

“We needed to take responsibility, recognise areas of the pitch, timings of the game and manage the game – that’s all we’re asking.

“We’re devastated because we really wanted that win but it’s a point – there’s three left and we have to keep moving on.”

Colchester had taken the lead midway through the first half, thanks to Brindley’s excellent free-kick, his first goal of the season.

“It was a great goal by Richard and he’s been doing that in training,” added McGreal.

“It was a bit of quality in a dull game but I’m more thinking about what’s happened in the last five minutes which was really disappointing, especially for the travelling fans.”