Cotterill fumes after loss

Bristol City boss Steve Cotterill bemoaned his side's sluggish start after they were beaten 3-2 at struggling Colchester.

Cotterill's League One leaders were 3-0 down after half-an-hour and despite scoring twice in the second half fell to a shock defeat. Cotterill said: "It was our own fault and we're disappointed with our own performance. "On the back of it, I could change all 11 (players) but I wouldn't say there was a lot to work on. "They're not all of a sudden going to become bad players overnight, but we didn't start for 30 minutes and that cost us. "In the first half, we didn't turn up. "We tried to play football too much on a poor pitch and we had the ball nicked off us a couple of times for the goals they scored. "We tried to pass the ball and it's not a pitch to pass on. "We should have been a bit brighter than that, but we weren't and we didn't learn our lesson. "There was some sloppy defending in the box, which we do not normally do and all of a sudden we find ourselves three goals down." Tom Lapslie headed Colchester into a third-minute lead, after City goalkeeper Frank Fielding had failed to hold on to Elliott Hewitt's delivery. Macauley Bonne doubled the U's advantage 11 minutes later with a superb header from Matt Briggs' excellent cross. City skipper Wade Elliott struck a post, but Chris Porter made it 3-0 in the 26th minute when he scored with a precise shot from Hewitt's pass. The visitors reduced the deficit five minutes after half-time when James Tavernier's attempted cross from just inside the Colchester half flew over home goalkeeper Sam Walker. Aden Flint headed home Korey Smith's cross just after the hour-mark to make it 3-2, but Colchester held on for victory. Colchester boss Tony Humes said: "All of the players were superb and they really stood up to the challenge, particularly after their second goal went in. "We just have to feed off that for the rest of the season and say 'we can do it'. "We scored three really good goals and I was really pleased with the way we played. "We urged the players to be brave and get on the ball and pass it more than perhaps we have done over recent games and they got their just rewards. "We were delighted with the first-half performance with the way we asked them to be brave and in the second half, we stood up to the unbelievable barrage that Bristol City threw at us. "The lads were terrific and for Tom Lapslie and Macauley Bonne to score, it shows what we're doing is right with the youth here - they both made a big impact."