Colchester United's players need to go ‘back to basics’.

That is the view of head coach John McGreal, as he attempts to help them resurrect their League Two play-off challenge.

The U’s are due to travel to play Morecambe this weekend, although the match at the Globe Arena is subject to a pitch inspection at lunchtime today.

Colchester are hoping that the game will go ahead as they aim to get back to winning ways, following damaging back-to-back defeats.

And head coach McGreal says they have concentrated on getting back to what they do best, as they target an important win over the struggling Shrimps.

McGreal said: “You just have to get back to basics.

“Performance and result-wise, you just have to strip it down and work hard.

“That’s generally how I’ve tried to do things since I’ve come here and speaking to one or two other managers, you just have to get back to habits.

“We didn’t show any of the habits that we’ve built up throughout the season last Saturday, so it’s really about reverting back to type as such and that’s what we’ve tried to do.”

Colchester will head into this weekend’s clash with Morecambe lying seven points off the play-off places in League Two, with 11 games remaining.

Successive defeats against Barnet and Crewe Alexandra have been a blow to their hopes but boss McGreal says a win tomorrow would put a different complexion on things.

“We’ve still got things that we want to try and do this season and we haven’t downed tools – that’s one big thing that we’ve tried to get across to the players this week,” said McGreal.

“We’ve got ourselves into a healthy league position and now it’s one with what can we gain from these 11 games, starting with Saturday.

“If we get three points then, it all looks rosy again and we think if we can win a game of football, it kick starts our season again.”

McGreal kept his Colchester players in the dressing room for more than 45 minutes after their 1-0 home defeat against bottom club Barnet, last weekend.

But the U’s boss says they have already drawn a line under that disappointing performance and result.

He added: “We’ve already moved on from it and it’s all been about Morecambe.

“There’s nothing we could take out of the Barnet game.

“The boys have been terrific for us since I’ve been in charge and we can count on one hand when we haven’t performed.

“As a collective, you get one or two boys who don’t perform but when it’s a whole group, you have to draw a line under it and move on.”