NATHAN CLARKE insisted namesake Peter’s sending off was the turning point in Town’s 1-0 defeat at Colchester United and insisted: “We can still take heart from this performance.”

Peter Clarke will miss tomorrow’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy second-round tie at Chesterfield through suspension after his 75th-minute red card.

Cautioned on 65 minutes for a foul on Kayode Odejayi, the captain was dismissed for a second bookable offence, with referee Gavin Ward ruling illegal use of the arm against John White.

Odejayi, on loan from Barnsley, sidefooted the winner five minutes later and Nathan Clarke said: “There’s no way we deserved that.

“It’s a double whammy, because we’ve lost the game and we’ve lost Pete for a match as well, and I certainly didn’t think it was a red-card offence.

“I saw both incidents clearly and I don’t think either were yellows. Pete’s not a malicious player, and if he caught the player with his arm, I’m sure it wasn’t deliberate.”

Town slid to ninth in League I after a fifth game without a win, and Clarke, who ended up wearing the skipper’s armband, added: “We should have drawn if not won.

“We can take positives from this performance because we followed the gameplan well and up until the sending off, we were containing them and creating chances ourselves.

“Even when we were down to 10 men, we had opportunities to equalise, and that would have been the least we deserved.”

Boss Lee Clark switched to a 5-3-2 system with James Berrett at sweeper, also bringing in Nathan Clarke and Robbie Simpson, with Andy Butler, Anthony Pilkington and Jordan Rhodes dropped to the bench.

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“We knew what they’re about and I thought we dealt with their physical presence well,” explained Clarke.

“We tried to get the ball down and pass it as much as was possible in the windy conditions.”