TOSIN Olufemi admits there is an urgent need for Colchester United to sort their defensive problems.

The 21-year-old U’s defender knows they can’t wait around for their fortunes to change and feels if they can act strongly now, then they can regain the position they were in when winning four League One games in a row in September.

Olufemi was part of the team that saw a two-goal lead wiped out in a 3-2 defeat by Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday as their current defensive frailties were laid bare once more.

He insists that the dressing room is united, but it was a fourth league defeat in a row and saw Colchester drop to within one point of the relegation zone.

However, the full-back knows they are essentially the same team as they were two months ago and feels they will push up again once confidence returns.

“We need to look again at where we’ve been conceding goals and make sure it gets sorted out now,” said the former U’s youth teamer.

“We can’t wait until later in the season or after Christmas because we’re struggling now.

“It feels like a long time ago that we went on that run of winning games, but at the end of the day a couple of wins will get us back up there because the table is still very tight.

“This is the time that we need to sort it out so we can push back up there.

“We need to get back to where we belong because we don’t belong down at the bottom.

“We’re the same team that went on that run and we have the quality in the team to push up.

“What we need, though, is the confidence to push back up.

“We need to regain the confidence that we had back then and once we get it back then we’ll be back up there for sure.

“There’s definitely still a togetherness in the dressing room.

“When we lose games like the one against Crewe it hurts, but we need to sort the problems and sort them now.”

Colchester will be hoping to bounce back from the disappointment of the defeat by Crewe and will look to end their poor run when they head to third-placed Buton Albion on Saturday.

“It’s a big game against Burton,” added Olufemi.

“They’ve been in good form so everyone needs to be on point.

“We have to go there and get a result – nothing less.”

“That one hurt the worst for sure.

“Being two-nil up and then to concede three goals in the second half – and the manner in which we conceded them – was tough.

“We’ve just got to defend better in those situations.

“We haven’t been in good form.

“We just have to see games out, but we’re too worried about what’s going to happen later on in the game.

“We need to see it out as a team and get through.

“It really hurts that we haven’t done that.

“We need to go back to the drawing board and work on it in training.

“We need to look again at where we’ve been conceding goals and make sure it gets sorted out now.

“We can’t wait until after Christmas because we’re struggling.

“It feels like a long time ago that we went on that run of winning games, but at the end of the day a couple of wins will get us back up there because the table is still very tight.

“This is the time that we need to sort it out so we can push back up there.

“We need to get back to where we belong because we don’t belong down at the bottom.

“We’re the same team that went on that run and we have the quality in the team to push up.

“What we need, though, is the confidence to push back up.

“We need to regain the confidence that we had back then and once we get it back then we’ll be back up there for sure.

“There’s definitely still a togetherness in the dressing room.

“When we lose games like the one against Crewe it hurts, but we need to sort the problems and sort them now.

“It’s a big game against Burton.

“They’ve been in good form so everyone needs to be on point.

“We have to go there and get a result – nothing less