Joe Edwards insists he is putting any talks about his Colchester United future on hold while the club continue to battle relegation.

Edwards’ one-year deal with the U’s is set to expire this summer, although there was an option for a further 12 months specified when he joined the club last July.

The former Yeovil Town captain is one of a number of players who will see their contracts expire at the Weston Homes Community Stadium, in the coming weeks.

However, Edwards revealed any potential discussions have been put on the back burner while Colchester’s League One survival hopes remain alive.

Edwards said: “My future here isn’t on my mind at the moment.

“There hasn’t been any talks and no-one’s concentrating on things like that.

“All we’re concentrating on is the remaining four games.”

Edwards says Colchester’s players have not given up the fight to keep the club in the third tier, despite their 4-1 home defeat against Peterborough United.

The U’s first loss in five matches has left them nine points from safety with four games remaining.

“There’s 12 points to play for and four games left so we’ll try and win them all and what will be, will be,” said Edwards, who is Colchester’s fourth-highest appearance maker this season.

“It’s about personal pride and making sure that you give everything you can for this football club and for yourself.

“We’ll keep fighting until the end and playing like we have done and we have got the quality in this team to win four games out of four.

“While there’s still points to play for and games to play, I’ll be giving everything I can.

“It’s nice for the supporters to see that the players are still trying and it’s just unfortunate that we’re in the position that we are.”

Colchester travel to play already relegated Crewe Alexandra tomorrow night and Edwards says they must win at Gresty Road and hope other results go for them.

He added: “We go into every game trying to win and there’s no reason why we can’t do that at Crewe.

“Hopefully, results will go with us and you never know, we’re still in it and we live to fight another day.

“The disappointing thing is that it’s out of our hands now and we know that we can four out of four but it might not be enough.

“But if we do that, then we know that we have given everything we can in the last four games and that’s all you can ask for.”

Edwards felt the manner of Colchester's defeat was harsh against Peterborough, with the hosts left to rue George Moncur's penalty being saved and Elliot Lee's striking the woodwork, along with a Chris Porter effort being ruled out for offside.

“It definitely wasn’t a 4-1 game," added Edwards, who has recently been playing at right-back for Colchester.

“The early goal put us back a little bit but after that I thought that we were brilliant in the first half.

“We had a penalty and a goal disallowed so we created enough but it was just one of those days when they didn’t go in.

“The penalty miss was crucial but George has been brilliant for us this year and he’s won games for us alone, so we can’t blame him for anything like that.

“A few of the other boys had chances and we hit the post so everyone has to take responsibility for the effort and we could have scored five or six and it could have been a closer game.

“We’ve been brilliant at the back recently so it was disappointing to concede the first goal and the last three were from when we were going for it and leaving numbers spare at the back.

“That’s their game plan; they’ll leave players up front and catch teams on the counter.

“We had to push on and try and win the game in the second half and it was inevitable that they left men up and we got caught on the counter-attack.

“Unfortunately, they scored the goals and we didn’t get ours, so it looks as though we’ve slipped back into our old ways but it wasn’t the way it felt.

“When you reflect and see that you’ve done well it can be a consolation but at this moment in time, it’s very disappointing."