Cheltenham Town suffered a 2-0 defeat away from home at the Jobserve Community Stadium to Colchester United.
Manager Steve Cotterill was disappointed with his side’s start, as they fell behind inside eight minutes when Kyreece Lisbie slotted past Joe Day.
“We haven’t started well for a little while now and we didn’t start very well in that game.
“We don’t need to wait until we get a punch on the nose before we can come out and play.
“From our point of view, we are disappointed with parts of our performance.”
Lisbie’s strike was his eighth of the season, though Cotterill insisted the goal should have been ruled out for offside, a view he says was supported after the match.
“The first goal was offside, which we thought at the time, and one of their guys has come to me after the game and said it was offside.
“The second goal, we can get a block on that. We have talked about blocks being as good as scoring goals.
“We could get a block, but it’s a great finish and he probably can’t put it anywhere else, so take nothing away from the lad on the finish.”
Embed from Getty ImagesJoe Day’s penalty save in the 52nd minute kept the Robins in the contest, though the former Bristol City manager disputed the award of the spot-kick.
“The penalty is not a penalty. The contact, honestly, would be like with a tissue paper and he’s not in the box anyway,” Cotterill claimed.
“I am not sure about that and it’ll be there for all to see; I won’t come out and say I thought it was something different.”
The Robins had more of the ball but could not make their opportunities in the final third count, though Cotterill was pleased with segments of the performance.
“Whenever we did some of the things we’ve worked on in the week in the lead up to this, we looked really good, in patches.
“The trouble is, those patches are not enough and we have to maintain that for longer in the game.
“We haven’t done that, so I am disappointed with the result but as I’ve said all along – this isn’t going to be smooth, any of this.”
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