THE relentless nature of their season so far at least means that Colchester United’s players have no time to dwell on their hugely disappointing home defeat against Morecambe.

With games coming thick and fast, the U's must dust themselves down quickly and prepare for a trip to Crewe Alexandra, who are going great guns at the top of the League Two table at present.

Colchester will have to contain their former captain Chris Porter, who has been in great form and scored twice in Alex’s 3-1 win over Swindon Town on Saturday.

Suffice to say, the U's will have to up their game considerably tomorrow night if they are to get back to winning ways.

Colchester's players cannot say they weren’t warned, prior to the weekend.

John McGreal was at pains to point out in the run up to their home match against Morecambe the need for his U’s side to be at their best, despite their opponents’ lowly position in the table.

In the end, the U’s head coach’s words of caution were seemingly not heeded.

Indeed, he had even warned his players about their opponents' threat from set pieces, making the Shrimps' winner following Cole Stockton's header from a corner even more galling.

“We have to be on our guard because if we’re not on it, Morecambe will come and turn us over,” McGreal had advised, 48 hours before his team slumped to a hugely disappointing 1-0 loss at the JobServe Community Stadium.

“We’ve found it tough to beat them over the last few years especially at home because they’ve come with a game plan, are good on set pieces and have great experience throughout the team.

“We know we’ll have to be on the money to win the game.”

McGreal knew full well that despite not having won in 12 matches and being rooted to the bottom of the table prior to their visit to Essex, this was a Morecambe side still capable of claiming victory if Colchester’s players were below par and did not perform.

That is exactly what happened and the fact that the U’s churned out one of their most disappointing overall performances for some time should not detract from the Shrimps’ disciplined and committed display.

Nevertheless, this defeat was a bit of a shock to the system for Colchester and their fans, especially as it followed on from the 2-1 loss at Crawley Town seven days earlier.

Fortunately, the U’s have not lost too much ground on the top seven despite those back-to-back defeats and remain two points off the play-off places.

But the truth is that they cannot afford too many more slip-ups like the one against Morecambe – particularly on home turf – if they are to achieve their goal of promotion this season.