Yahoo Sports Colchester EFL Trophy defeat my fault, says Macey
Colchester United goalkeeper Matt Macey accepted "full responsibility" for both goals conceded after defeat by Cheltenham ended their hopes of reaching the EFL Trophy quarter-finals.
Macey was beaten by Tom Pett's early shot and after Lyle Taylor levelled just before half-time, he was beaten again in added time at the end of the game as the home side won 2-1.
"It's a really tough one to take because that's down to my two mistakes," Macey told BBC Essex Sport.
"It's completely unacceptable to make mistakes like that at this level, we should have won the game 1-0 and be in the next round."
Macey joined Colchester in the summer after leaving Portsmouth and was making his 29th appearance of the season - with clean sheets in 10 of his previous games.
"It was black and white. Sometimes it's not as clear-cut and there's (other) factors involved but they scored two goals from nothing and other than that I wasn't overly worked, apart from one header.
"It's simple, two clear mistakes from me and all I can do is apologise to everyone involved, the fans coming all this way - they were magnificent as they always are, and all I can do is get my head down and try to rectify it on Saturday."
Colchester boss Danny Cowley said defeat was hard to take as they played so well and had "committed a lot" to the competition this season.
The U's had almost 60% of possession during the game and 14 shots compared to Cheltenham's five.
Cowley refused to single out Macey for any criticism.
"We win together, we lose together. Matt's been brilliant for us all season. You won't hear me kicking my players when they're down," he said.
Cowley was unhappy with what he described as "erratic" officiating of the game.
"Unfortunately, the Premier League, VAR, they've taken all of our best officials because you need so many now to referee one game in the Premier League," he said.
"We've had to fast track the next group of referees and they're just not ready. That's not their fault, but that's the situation we find ourselves in in the EFL."
Colchester return to League Two action with a trip to Bromley on Saturday.
