SWINDON Town boss Mark Cooper was left to rue two defensive errors as his side dropped two points at home to Colchester United this afternoon.

Michael Smith had fired Town into the lead midway through the first half before Rhys Healey levelled on 47 minutes.

Smith restored Town’s lead within a minute, but Gavin Massey ensured that the visitors returned home with a share of the spoils.

Cooper said after the game: “I think if you look at the chances that we have missed then we should win.

“But we’ve given away two goals at home. We shouldn’t have to be scoring three goals at home to win.

“We have got three 19-year-old boys playing at centre back and they are going to make mistakes, we will stick with them, they are learning, but the only bonus is that we get Nathan Thompson back (from suspension on Tuesday).”

Cooper was hoping that having taken a lead into the break, that his side would have started the second period better, but with only two minutes of the half gone, Colchester were level.

“We are 1-0 up at half-time and we have to make sure that we start well and don’t give them anything, within a minute or so it is 1-1.

“We have got three 19 year old centre backs and one of them makes a mistake and it ends up being one-v-one, that shouldn’t happen.

“The second one, it is one long ball over the top and it catches us out – we have got some work to do with the young boys.”

The Town chief was also disappointed by the officiating during the match and felt that Chris Sarginson and his assistants had a below par afternoon.

“I thought that it was another incredible performance by the referee, I should say officials, some of the decisions were incredible.

“But that is the standard of referees now and we can’t do anything about it, it is not going to get any better.”