MARK Cooper was left frustrated by what he described as Colchester United's 'time wasting' after his Forest Green Rovers side were beaten 1-0 at the New Lawn.

The Rovers boss felt the U's were running down the clock in the second half of their triumph, which was gained courtesy of Sammie Szmodics' first-half strike.

Cooper also felt there was little in the game - and that Szmodics' deflected goal was 'really fortunate' as Colchester claimed all three points in a tight encounter.

Cooper said: "Colchester time wasted from the first minute in the second half.

"The referee didn’t do anything about it and then put five minutes up and just let them get away with it.

“Colchester are a good team and play good football but there was nothing in the game.

"We had all of the second half and they tried to catch us on the break.

“Colchester got a really fortunate goal that was going out of the stadium and hit Joseph Mills in the face - and dropped to the edge of the box and hit Paul Digby - and gone in the other corner.

"That's sometimes the luck that you need.

“But we didn’t produce in the final third."

Cooper was disappointed with his side's forward play after they drew a blank in front of their own fans.

He added: "There was nothing in the game and one deflected goal was the difference between the two teams.

"In the second half we had a lot of opportunities to produce a game-changing moment or a goal but we just didn't have that bit of quality in the end to produce it.

"Our forward players didn't produce.

"We had a couple that went across the box, a disallowed goal, Ben Morris has put one over and we could have had a penalty.

“It looked like we had a case for a penalty from where I was.

"Reuben Reid looked good when he came on and gave us a base.

"But we need more from our forward players and we haven't scored enough goals at home.

"When we're at home we have to try and push and create and we were wanting in the forward area."