Everything before the game was right!

3pm, the whistle blows. This is our arena, this is our show, we showed how well we can play at Palace, now is the time for all our hard work to come to fruition. For the next 90 minutes we're going to give these boys a good whipping.

Unfortunately, that's where our hopes and dreams stopped, reality kicked in and smacked us all in the face with the wake up call we needed.

We started off bright enough, playing the ball around, trying to find the right areas. We pressed and they dropped, things were looking good and it felt that the opener would follow soon.

Kyle Lafferty, playing in a right wing forward role received the ball wide and did well to make himself some room on the edge of the area. Unfortunately his shot lacked any sort of pace or conviction and rolled nicely into the keepers arms.

It seemed that Steve Jones, playing on the opposite side to Lafferty didn't want to pull out wide, trying to cut inside at every given opportunity. Still, when the ball was played down the right, Frank Sinclair and Lafferty were troubling the Colchester full backs. This lead to another chance for Andy Gray, but the keeper did well to block a Gray turn and shot at the near post.

Micah Hyde seemed to have full control of the middle of the park, sweeping the ball left and right, tidying up any second balls that fell in the middle.

Colchester had set their stall out. They were going to defend with everything they had, hoping the claret and blue soldiers would make a mistake somewhere and leave a hole in their amour that they could take advantage of.

Unfortunately this is exactly what happened. Jones received the ball wide and again tried to cut inside onto his favoured right foot. His ball across the middle was badly placed and fell straight to the feet of Karl Duguid. He sent a stunning ball low and into the corner for the oncoming right winger. His cross was perfect, high and looping. Jensen looked caught in two minds and failed to get a meaningful touch on the ball. It dropped over Jensen's head, giving Watson the easy task of slotting the ball home into an empty net.

It was all our own doing; however, Colchester had found the one thing we didn't have - the killer ball into the right area.

The crowd roared, still full of belief that we could turn this game around. It was just an error, there was still an hour of play left, plenty of time to produce the fine win we had all been expecting so much.

We again tried to work the ball down the right, finding Lafferty in space. He advanced forward with close control, shot hard and low, forcing the keeper to tip the ball around the post.

This would be the last time we saw an effort on goal before the half time whistle. Our warriors looked like they had run out of ideas; no-one could find the quality pass or cross that we so desperately needed to carve the Colchester defence open. It was frustrating to watch after starting so brightly.

As the second half began, it became clear we were still lacking creativity. Alan Mahon struggled to find space to shoot, cross or deliver a telling pass. Jones had faded and was completely ineffective and Lafferty seemed tired after being our only option in the first half.

It wasn't long before we shot ourselves in the foot once again, allowing Colchester to counter whilst we were pressing. A wayward pass from Mahon in the middle of the park gave Colchester the chance to attack leaving us 3 against 3. The ball was played across the box to Richard Garcia – his touch was a little heavy which sent him straight into the path of John McGreal's attempted interception. The ref blew straight away and awarded the visitors a penalty. The home fans felt this was unjust, but to your reporter for the day, it looked like a clear penalty. Iwelumo stepped up and sent Jensen the wrong way.

The Burnley manager had seen enough and decided to change things, bringing on Gifton Noel-Williams, Michael Duff and Wade Elliott. They replaced Sinclair, Lafferty and the ineffective Jones. Sometimes I am ashamed to be a Burnley supporter, this was one of those times. The abuse that Noel-Williams received from the home fans was nothing short of disgraceful.

This saw us switch to a 4-4-2 formation with Mahon moving out onto the left of midfield. The plan was to send balls high into the area from wide positions, hoping that Gray or Gifton could get on the end of one and make it count.

This plan nearly worked, with Gifton twice getting on the end of some decent crosses. His first was a header that the keeper was glad to watch over the bar. The next was an athletic volley, forcing Davison to make his best save of the game.

It looked as though we were heading towards an embarrassing defeat, until Andy Gray gave us a glimmer of hope. Michael Duff scuffed his connection from a cross from the left, which fell nicely to Gray. The Burnley attacker made sure, striking the ball into the left hand corner.

We didn't have long left, but Gray could have pulled things level when he connected with a cross six yards out from goal. The striker couldn't believe his luck when as he watched the ball fall into the arms of Davison.

That was the last bit of action we were going to see for the day and the ref brought our embarrassing performance to an end. Our walls had been breached, our army defeated.

There were positives we can take from the game. We had the lion's share of the possession and were prepared to pass the ball around. However, there are many things we still need to work on, we seem to lack the decisive pass from our midfield and we are still making silly (and costly mistakes).

Tuesday is another day, our soldiers will be patched up and sent out for battle again against Barnsley, hopefully the parking spot will be available, the beer will taste just as sweet, but the final score will be one that (for once) favours the home team at Turf Moor.