COLWYN Bay assistant Craig Hogg stated their 5-0 friendly loss to a strong Colchester United side was “a big learning curve”.

A depleted Seagulls squad due to work commitments and squad members stuck in heavy traffic were second best throughout their friendly encounter against the Football League side, and they continue their pre-season schedule against newly promoted JD Welsh Premier League side Caernarfon Town on Tuesday.

Hogg, said: ““I was extremely impressed with how Colchester operated. They possess so much strength and so much pace and power that I thought the scoreline to some extent flattered us.

“But there were some positives for us. I felt our play at times was good and although they pressed very high and aggressively we were able to play through that at times and cause a certain degree of problems.

“On the whole it was a huge learning curve for us which I hope will prove valuable. What the players must learn most is that if you make mistakes against very good teams you will get punished.

“The majority of their goals were down to individual mistakes, but I will take players making those mistakes in pre-season all day long – as long as they learn from them.

“The players were able to get some very good minutes into their legs which was good for their conditioning and hopefully we’ll have a few more bodies available on Tuesday against Caernarfon Town who will probably reflect more the opposition we will be playing in the league campaign.”

United held a comfortable three-goal cushion heading into the interval, and Bay stopper Matt Cooper pulled off a series of smart stops after the break to keep them from adding to their tally.

Ashley Ruane went closest to netting for the home side when his 25-yard effort flew narrowly wide, and the visitors rounded off the scoring with two strikes late on.