Stevenage’s long wait for a league goal finally ended at Colchester United – but that was a rare positive on a difficult evening and manager Alex Revell is now looking for the FA Cup to get their season back on track.

Marcus Dinanga got it, slamming in a rebound after his 15th-minute penalty was saved, and at that point on Tuesday evening it brought the score back to 1-1.

However, Jevani Brown went on to complete his hat-trick to give Colchester a 3-1 win and the Boro boss felt the hosts gave them a footballing lesson, one he will want to see learned by the time they face Concord Rangers on Saturday.

“We’ve got to win, simple as that,” said Revell with one eye turned to the first-round game against the National League South side. “We have to bounce back and we’ll get a team on the pitch on Saturday that is eager and hungry to get a win.

“[Colchester] were probably the best side we’ve played so far but they were disappointing goals to concede. We’ve really been solid in that department but they caused us problems all game.

“Two were crosses and we didn’t mark probably the only player in the box and the other, we don’t win the first ball and the same player who nods it down, runs in behind and scores.

“What the lads have got is desire. They are not a team that will give up but we got back into game away from home, and even without fans you are away from home, and to come in at 1-1, I thought we had weathered the storm.

“We tried to rejig and state the obvious about there only being one player in the box to mark.

“Their second goal killed our momentum, it was probably 50-50 at the time.”

The absence of the usual resolute Boro defence came at completely the wrong time, making their first goal in seven League Two outings moot.

During that same sequence, Stevenage had conceded just five and eight in total over their 10 previous league games.

Revell said: “It was probably one of our best moves that led to the penalty. Marcus has stepped up and luckily he follows it in.

“We’ve tried to keep the lads confident and rely on our defensive structure and ability to keep clean sheets.

“We came up against a team that has moved us and created opportunities.”