BRAD Jones is facing the axe from City's goal after his blunder gifted Colchester a head start last night.

Jones dived over Callum Harriott's seventh-minute shot as the Bantams slipped to a 2-0 defeat.

The keeper's glaring error came only seconds after James Hanson had wasted a golden chance at the other end and Phil Parkinson was in unforgiving mood afterwards.

Jones has not convinced since replacing Ben Williams three games ago and, when asked if it was time to review the keeping position, Parkinson said: "Yeah, I may have to.

"I've got a long journey now to sit back and think of what to do. But we win together and lose together as a team. That's all of us."

Former Burnley striker Marvin Sordell, who Colchester signed after missing out to City over Devante Cole, added a second goal before half-time. But Parkinson admitted the first blow had killed the momentum against a side who have now won four in a row.

He said: "When everything's going for Colchester at the moment, we haven't half gifted them a first goal.

"First we have a glaring opportunity to score and then we conceded a really soft goal.

"We gave a huge lift to a team who are playing with confidence but had started the game really flat. It's so frustrating.

"I was really pleased with the way we looked at the start. There was real intent in our play – but obviously goals change games. That was such a soft one and it knocked us."

Parkinson was hit by another selection blow just before kick-off when Rory McArdle was ruled out due to illness.

Having lost Paul Anderson for the rest of the season on Saturday, City were forced to go without their defensive ever-present. Chris Routis was rushed into the back four in his place.

Parkinson said: "Rory had sickness and diarrhoea and he wasn't well enough to even get on the coach. We had to leave him at the hotel in the end.

"He was down to play. He'd trained with us yesterday morning and did all the preparation but then he felt worse again.

"Rory's a tough lad and could have played but he was clearly not right. Chris had not even made the bench (on Saturday) and then found out he was playing an hour before the game.

"But I thought the back four did well. Their attacking players are going well but they hardly cause us a problem all night. They've had two shots and both end up in the back of the net.

"But once Colchester got the two-goal lead, they stuck rigidly in their shape after that and we found it difficult to break them down."

City slipped to sixth from bottom and Parkinson admitted: "We've lost our creativity from what we had a few weeks ago.

"We kept going and kept trying to do the right things but it wasn't always great."