John McGreal admits it will be a tough job for Colchester United to retain the services of their best players this summer.

But the U’s head coach says they will be doing everything to keep their top performers – and add to the squad for next season.

McGreal will hold post-season meetings with squad on an individual basis today, after Colchester narrowly missed out on landing a League Two play-off spot.

The U’s beat Yeovil Town 2-0 at the Weston Homes Community Stadium but finished eighth and a point off the top seven, following final-day wins for Blackpool and Carlisle United.

McGreal said: “We’ve all got our meetings on Monday and I haven’t spoken about contracts to our boys yet.

“I’ve tried to keep that focus knowing that we had an opportunity to get into the play-offs.

“We’ve got good players here and in the January window, our players were being courted.

“It was a tough job to keep them and even though they’ve had injuries, it will be a tough job again in the summer to keep hold of our players.

“But we want to do that and try and add as well, because it’s been a brilliant season.

“We’ve got a strong squad here and aside from Brennan (Dickenson) who’ll be out longer, we’ll have players coming back in pre-season.

“They have a good year under their belts and they know what division two is all about.

“It’s a tough league and a tight league so it’s exciting times and if we can add one or two to that squad group, then brilliant.

“There’s more to come from these boys and they look as though they’ve been enjoying their football of late, which is great.”

McGreal said Colchester will be looking to bolster their squad over the coming months, in readiness for another League Two promotion push.

He said: “We’ll start talking to our lads first and foremost and then we’ll look to improve, to see what else we can get in.

“I’ve been talking to Steve (Ball), Tony (Humes), Stevie McCall and Iain Moody behind the scenes about recruitment and identifying different players.

“The work hasn’t stopped and we’ll continue to keep the work going, because we can’t rest on our laurels.

“We have to keep improving and trying to get towards the play-offs.”

Tarique Fosu scored twice to give Colchester victory over Yeovil but results elsewhere prevented them from securing a play-off place.

McGreal added: “They put in a great performance to win 2-0 – we were reliant on other teams and we haven’t been able to get into the play-offs because of that but we’ve done our best.”