Boothroyd: I felt sorry for our fans

Colchester manager Adrian Boothroyd lamented his team's 'park pitch' defending after they were swept away by a five-star showing by the Canaries.The former City academy coach accused his players of giving away four of the five goals they conceded in the League One encounter at a boggy Weston Homes Community Stadium.

Colchester manager Adrian Boothroyd lamented his team's 'park pitch' defending after they were swept away by a five-star showing by the Canaries.

The former City academy coach accused his players of giving away four of the five goals they conceded in the League One encounter at a boggy Weston Homes Community Stadium.

'The bottom line is that we gave away four daft goals and you can't do that against a team that has one of the best goalscoring records in the league,' said Boothroyd, whose team were beaten 7-0 at Preston in the FA Cup in their previous match.

'We didn't take our chances when we had our dominance in the first half and if you make silly errors, this is what happens.'

The crowd of 10,064 was Colchester's biggest for a league match for 42 years, but any thoughts of a famous double after their 7-1 win at Carrow Road were quickly blown away.

Said Boothroyd: 'I'm disappointed for the people who turned up. We had a really good crowd and there's been a lot of hype around it but in the second half, we got what we deserved.

'There's a way to win which we've done plenty of and there's a way to lose. If you're going to lose, you have to make sure that you do all you can to make sure you lose to the better team. I'm disappointed and a little bit shell-shocked.

'I just felt that out of the five goals, we gave them four of them. They were silly, individual errors that you don't see on a park pitch on a Sunday.'