Danny Cowley felt it was unfair for Colchester to have to play their rearranged League Two game against Notts County on Tuesday night.
The initial fixture was postponed on December 7 in the interests of spectator and player safety after damage to one of the Meadow Lane scoreboards.
United fought back to claim a 1-1 draw on their return to Nottingham, with Tyreece Simpson cancelling out Conor Grant’s early opener, but Cowley was not happy with the English Football League.
Cowley said: “The EFL made us play that tonight and we were tired. The EFL told us we could either play Port Vale or Notts County, but in the end we had to play Notts County.
“We have just been away to Carlisle, and neither of those two teams played on Saturday, they both played on Thursday. There was no thought about us. Every other game in the Football League was played when this one was first cancelled for a little bit hanging off of a scoreboard.
“Seriously? The game gets called off? For me, this is crazy.
“I have had the privilege to manage in some of the top leagues in this country and the powers above have the responsibility to make this league fair and tonight I do not think it was fair on us, despite the fact I thought the boys put in an incredible effort.”
Notts County head coach Stuart Maynard felt his side struggled with “a bit of anxiety”.
County missed the chance to move into the automatic promotion spots, leaving them fourth, one point behind third-placed Doncaster.
“I felt a bit of anxiety tonight, on the pitch, with the lads,” Maynard said.
“I think the first 10 minutes we started really bright, we picked them off and went through them and then we scored but then after that, Colchester do what they do and they get behind the ball and frustrate you and they countered well with us being sloppy.
“I look at that tonight and I think when you give teams an opportunity like Colchester, who come and they want to sit in and wait for us to make a mistake, you play into their hands.
“We tried to play over too many long distances tonight, we needed to play shorter.
“I thought Kellan Gordon was excellent tonight, when the ball was fed into him one v one he got a good cross in and looked very dangerous.
“We’re currently managing bodies back to full fitness and we can only be mindful. The amount of minutes we gave them tonight were the maximum that we were able to give them and we have to be mindful of the fact that we do have a lot of bodies out at the minute and we have to make sure we do not get any more.
“The lads have been excellent about it and we could look back on this point at the end of the season as a good point.”
