Gavin Massey insists Colchester United’s players cannot afford to dwell on their narrow defeat at Rochdale.

The U’s were beaten 2-1 at Spotland to fall to a third straight defeat in League One.

Colchester lie two points adrift of safety ahead of crucial back-to-back home games against fellow strugglers Crawley Town and Yeovil Town, before a trip to play Gillingham on March 21.

Massey said: “The boys are disappointed with the result but we can’t dwell on it.

“There are 11 games to go and we have to pick ourselves up and go again in training.

“We have a big three games coming up and we have to get nine points.

“We can’t think about this game anymore.

“We’ve lost our last three games but we’ll go again on Saturday.

“We have 11 games to go and at this moment, it’s still in our hands.

“The boys are putting in as much effort as we can, week in week out.

“The manager will tweak his tactics but when it comes to crossing that white line, you give 100 per cent and we have to be picking up points.

“I said it inside – no matter how well we’ve played we’ve lost the game.”

For five pages of coverage of the U's game with Rochdale, see Monday's Daily Gazette.