Matty Etherington insists his Colchester players “let themselves down” after suffering a chaotic 5-3 League Two defeat at AFC Wimbledon.
Josh Davison and Joe Lewis both grabbed doubles for the hosts at Plough Lane as Asian Cup-bound Iraqi international Ali Al Hamadi also netted.
Cameron McGeehan, Joe Taylor and Tom Dallison all scored for the Us, though McGeehan was sent off in the closing stages for a second bookable offence.
Colchester have now suffered five away league defeats on the spin and Etherington criticised his players for their character in the capital.
The former West Ham and Stoke winger said: “I have been a player, they don’t want the manager coming out and saying they have let me down – but I think they have let themselves down.
“What will be will be with me, but they have let themselves down.
“If they play like they did second half it is going to be a long season, if they play like they did in the first half, they will be absolutely fine.
“It was a fairly even game first half, but for some reason we decided to come out in the second half and be really naive in our first few moments.
“It set the tone for the second half – it was poor. There was no excuses for it, it was really poor second half.
“Maybe fatigue set in a little bit and maybe poor decision-making.
“We have lots of young players in the team, really good young players but they need to grow up at this level. The whole team does.”
Both teams scored inside the opening seven minutes as Davison and McGeehan got the game off to a thrilling start.
The away side took the lead when Taylor beat Alex Bass before Wimbledon found an equaliser when Lewis headed home.
Davison fired the hosts back into the lead before Al Hamadi scored their fourth.
McGeehan was shown a second yellow card late on as Lewis netted a second in stoppage time, with Dallison’s goal nothing more than a consolation.
Dons boss Johnnie Jackson, whose side now sit in the play-off places, said: “I’m delighted – I thought we were brilliant from nearly start to finish.
“There was a period of the first half where they were slightly on top, but I thought we gained in control towards the end of the first half and in the second half we have been completely dominant in the game and scored five goals.
“We could have and should have scored more and looked a real threat all night.
“Coming here off the back of a difficult day three days ago and get the response that I have got, I cannot ask any more.
“I thought both lads (Davison and Lewis) were brilliant and delighted that they have got the goals. I have been asked for defenders to chip in more, hats off to Joe for that.
“Obviously, you want your strikers to be scoring the goals and for Josh to get his brace tonight, and I’m delighted for him.”
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Al-Riyadh 0-1 Al-Nassr: Mane hands visitors bragging rights
Sadio Mane's first-half strike ensured Al-Nassr maintained their unbeaten start to the Saudi Pro League season with a 1-0 win over rivals Al-Riyadh.
He smartly finished from close range in the 41st minute, with his goal enough to seal the three points and move Al-Nassr up to third in the table.
Al-Nassr's threat grew as the first half went on, with Milan Borjan making a fine double stop to deny Ronaldo and Talisca once again before Mohamed Simakan struck the post on the rebound.
Mane would eventually break the deadlock in the 41st minute though, darting in front of his marker to meet Abdulrahman Ghareeb's low cross and rifle it into the roof of the net.
The Senegalese striker arguably should have doubled his tally before the break, but was denied by Borjan's stretching save when one-on-one with the Canadian.
Talisca should have wrapped up the points in the final three minutes, but he blazed over an empty net from close range, before having a late goal disallowed for offside.
Data Debrief: Derby delight for Al-Nassr
After drawing their last two matches, this win was a welcome result for Al-Nassr as they racked up their sixth victory of the season to close the gap at the top of the table to six points.
It is just the second time Al-Nassr have avoided defeat in their first 10 matches of a Pro League campaign, last doing so in 2013-14, when they won the league title.
They are now unbeaten in their last seven Pro League derbies (W4 D3), their longest such streak since a run of nine between 2018 and 2020.
This is the first time in eight such games that they have kept a clean sheet though, and limited their opponents to just five shots throughout.
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