Colchester United boss, John McGreal, has criticised his side for being too naïve, when playing away from the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

The U’s are back on home soil this Saturday, for the visit of Wycombe Wanderers, having taken eight points from four home games – they have only suffered two home league defeats throughout 2017.

But next week, McGreal’s men have tough back-to-back trips to Grimsby Town (Tuesday evening) and Yeovil Town (on Saturday week), so it is vital that the U’s sort out that dismal away record before the end of this month.

“The naivety shines through, away from home,” admitted McGreal.

“We’ve got to try and adjust that. We’ve got to get one over the line to give us that belief, away from home.

“Our away fans pay good money to come and watch. A lot of them have shown great support, but a lot of them are unhappy, and we totally understand that. But we must all stick together.”

The U’s have lost all four away games this season, and have only won once on the road throughout 2017 (at Leyton Orient in late April). The latest setback was a 3-1 defeat at Cheltenham Town last Saturday, a team who had only won one game before the visit of the bad travellers from Essex.

McGreal remarked: “We are so wasteful. We played with two strikers (Mikael Mandron and Nicke Kabamba) last Saturday, to create opportunities, and we have ended up having lots of opportunities. They should be putting them in the net, but they haven’t, and even late we had lost of chances. It’s not good enough.

“We work ever so hard to create opportunities and yet we are not taking them at the moment, away from home.

“I had sensed that last Saturday was the day when we were going to turn it all around, and we did start ever so well.

“We were not good enough in both boxes.

“Nicke (Kabamba) should have scored. We look at defenders to defend the box, but also we’ve got to say that to the forwards as well. We’ve had four away games and had some unbelievable chances,” added McGreal.

Mandron, sent off for deliberate handball in the penalty area at Cheltenham, serves a one-match suspension this weekend, which might mean a first start for fellow striker Brandon Hanlan.