The U's fell to defeat against Swindon Town on Saturday, as a goal in each half was enough for the Robins to take the points back to the West Country.
The home side had started the stronger and had the better of the first twenty minutes, but fell behind to Nicky Ajose's sharp finish midway through the first half.
The U's hopes of a second half fightback were dented within two minutes of the restart by a Dany N'Guessan goal, before Magnus Okuonghae pulled one back.
However, there were only twelve minutes left for the U's to find their second and time ran out, leaving the U's defeated.
The first ten minutes saw Colchester in control as the midfielders looked to break down Swindon who spent most of the early period inside their own half, Marcus Bean fired over and Alex Gilbey came within inches after a volley on the edge of the box.
Gilbey dictated play from the left hand side and created a great chance for Elliott Lee whose deflected shot caused problems for Wes Foderingham who eventually caught the ball. Gilbey then found Macauley Bonne who swivelled between two defenders but saw his shot fly over the bar.
After complete control from the U’s but no goal to show for it Swindon took the lead. Massimo Luongo’s 20 yard shot was well saved by Sam Walker but he could only parry the ball into the path of Nicky Ajose who fired the ball into the net just before the half hour mark.
Lee then came painfully close to a goal when he connected to a corner and headed to the far post only to be denied by Louis Thompson on the line who cleared for another corner. The resulting corner saw some scrappy play in the box and ended Bean down on the ground but nothing given.
The away side pushed on and looked for a second from their own corner set piece but Walker did well to catch the header. The rest of the first half saw a frustrated U’s side struggle to get themselves back into the game with Swindon holding their narrow lead into the break.
Swindon kicked off the second half looking to double their lead, it took just one minute. Ryan Harley found himself with a lot of space just inside the box and placed a shot which looked to be heading wide, but leading scorer Danny N’Guessen instinctively followed in to score unchallenged.
U’s searched for some inspiration from the bench bringing on Jabo Ibehre and Gavin Massey for Lee and Craig Eastmond just before the hour mark. Just minutes later Magnus Okounghae connected to Ryan Dickson’s corner but his tame header didn’t trouble Foderingham in goal.
Luongo then came painfully close to getting his second goal of the game when Walker was forced to head the ball away from the edge of his box, the Swindon man tried his luck with the chip but saw it rebound off the post.
Colchester finally clawed one back with 12 minutes to go when Wilson made enough space to float a cross into the danger area and picked out unmarked Okounghae to headed the ball downwards and saw it bounce past Foderingham to give U’s some hope.
The last ten minutes saw Swindon close out the game with a fair chunk of the injury time spent by the corner flags before the referee blew up for full time giving Swindon their second away win of the season and ending U’s three game unbeaten run.