Colchester United head coach John McGreal felt his side fell short in the passing department after they were narrowly beaten 1-0 by Ipswich Town in a pre-season friendly.

Joe Garner’s header just before the hour mark gave the Championship side victory and proved the difference between the two sides at the Weston Homes Community Stadium, condemning the U’s to their first defeat of pre-season.

McGreal said: “It was a great game for us and a great exercise for us.

“We’ve done particularly well in the games that we’ve had but against a lot fitter Ipswich side, you could see we were a little bit short in the passing department.

“The big disappointment for me was our possession at times.

“I thought our shape was OK – there are still bits to work on but it just proves that against higher opposition who move the ball quicker, we have to think quicker.

“That’s why we put these fixtures in late on in the pre-season and we'll pick the bones out of it and move on to Gillingham on Friday.

“We knew Ipswich would be a test just like Gillingham will be on Friday and it’s up to us now to pick the bones out of it with the analysis and still improve.

“We created little bits in the second half like when we got into the wing-back area with Kins (Lewis Kinsella) but Ipswich’s extra yard of speed in closing us down put us under that little bit of pressure where we needed to keep our composure.

“We started well in the opening 20 minutes but then Ipswich got a foothold on the game and we couldn’t get the ball into Drey (Wright) and Mikael (Mandron).”