TOM Eastman feels that Colchester United’s best chance of kick-starting their season, is to begin dominating on home turf.

Back-to-back games on the road yielded no points, and no goals, following a 4-0 trouncing at Tranmere and an unlucky 1-0 loss at Brentford.

As a result, John Ward’s men have slipped to third-from-bottom, after five fixtures.

But they have a chance to drag themselves away from the relegation zone over the next six days, when they entertain Doncaster Rovers on Saturday and then Crawley next Tuesday evening.

Ex-Ipswich Town defender Eastman is confident that the U’s will get their season off and running in these two fixtures.

“It’s a long, old season. There’s another 40-odd games to go, and our heads are still high,” insisted Eastman.

“I don’t agree that the pressure gets more, the longer our run without a victory goes on.

“I don’t feel the pressure, though obviously it gets more worrying if we go 20 games without a win!

“We have to make our home a fortress. We’ve got to get our points there, and make sure we do that,” added Eastman.

The centre-half was recalled to the side for Saturday’s narrow defeat at Brentford, having sat out the previous four league fixtures.

And the 20-year-old produced an encouraging display, alongside Magnus Okuonghae in the heart of defence, only for all the U’s hard work to be undone by Farid El Alagui’s 88th minute winner.

“I’m glad to be back in the team,” confirmed Eastman.

“I started at Yeovil (3-0 defeat in the Capital One Cup), but didn’t do the best there. Hopefully I proved myself in training and have another chance now.

“I felt I was quite strong at Brentford, and now I want to keep my place.

“We deserved a point at the very least at Brentford. In fact, the lads were maybe even more disappointed than last week, when we didn’t deserve anything,” added Eastman.