COLCHESTER United head coach John McGreal has challenged his side to embark on a run in League Two – and pull away from the chasing pack.

The U’s are at home this weekend against Crawley Town, with whom they are level on points in the table.

Both sides lie just a point off the play-off positions and five adrift of the automatic promotion places and boss McGreal says victory for his team tomorrow would serve as a significant boost.

McGreal said: “We want to try and get on a good consistent run if we can and keep ourselves in and around it.

“Nothing is won in October – we lost three points last week but there’s no crying about what’s gone on.

“It’s about getting on it again and working hard and making sure we have those habits and standards that we’ve been talking about as buzzwords throughout pre-season and into the season.

“This division is so tight and I can’t see it changing.

“You’ll get one or two teams who’ll try to pull away, as you always do.

“Because it’s so tight, the wins are so big in our league because you can jump seven or eight places with three points.

“It would be nice to get those two wins on the bounce.

“We’re only a point off it with the goal difference that we’ve got, which is terrific.

“It’s so tight and if you’re not on the money on the day of the game, you’ll get beaten.

“It comes down to key decisions, like the one he had (for the penalty) at Stevenage.

“We feel as though we’ve had a consistency, apart from around 25-30 minutes of the second half against Stevenage.

“Getting back on it against Southend (in the Checkatrade Trophy) has helped and we need to go again.

“It’s been a great start – we haven’t had as good a start for 17 years so we’ve got to maintain that.”

Colchester will assess the fitness of several players today ahead of the game, with one or two carrying knocks.

McGreal must decide whether or not to recall Frankie Kent to his league starting line-up, after he scored their opener in their Checkatrade Trophy win over Southend United on Tuesday night.

The likes of Mikael Mandron, Aaron Collins and Brennan Dickenson are all pushing for starts, after featuring against Blues.

The U’s will definitely be without midfielder Brandon Comley, who is unavailable due to being on international duty with Montserrat.