Essex head Anthony McGrath has hailed the efforts of Colchester youngster Charlie Allison in the Metro Bank One Day Cup.

Allison added another 44 runs to his tally in a losing cause at Kent, as Essex went down by 60 runs at Canterbury on Sunday.

And as they prepare for their last game in this year's competition against Surrey at the County Ground on Tuesday (11am), McGrath said: “Charlie Allison has been superb.

"I think if you just look how he’s gone about it, his level of performance for someone who’s hardly played second-team cricket never mind first team has really been superb throughout the whole thing.

"He hasn’t been overawed, hasn’t looked out of place and he keeps putting in performances.”

Jack Leaning's unbeaten 137 led Kent to 287-8, as Beau Webster (3-38) proved the pick of the Essex bowling.

But half-centuries from the returning Feroze Khushi (50) and Will Buttleman (50 not out) proved in vain as the visitors were dismissed for 227 in 45 overs.

"It’s the same story, we’ve been in games and we’ve had a bad four or five overs with the ball or with the bat when we’ve lost clusters of wickets," added McGrath.

"Again we thought we could have chased them down, but we got ourselves in good positions and then lost wickets, so it’s very, very frustrating.

“It can happen, particularly with the team we’ve put out, but we expect better.

“It was good to have Feroze [Khushi] back. It was such a disappointment that he got injured in the Surrey game and missed [T20] Finals Day and a couple of Championship games. He looked class today and showed what we’ve missed at the top of the order.

Essex have won just one of their seven matches so far, with five losses and a no result at Lancashire.

And their clash with Surrey is a battle to avoid the wooden spoon, with both counties having seen several players go off to play in The Hundred.

“I think generally we’re disappointed with how it’s gone," admitted McGrath.

"We know we’re threadbare with the squad and we had a few young players, but still, when you’re playing for Essex and representing Essex we expect to win games no matter what team we put out.

“I just think we’ve been sloppy throughout the tournament. The youngsters who’ve come in have done really well but probably if we’re honest the senior lads we’ve got, lads with a bit more experience have not really gone well and it’s affected the overall team performance."