George Moncur admits that Colchester United will have to drastically improve their first-half displays, if they are to avoid relegation into League Two.

Midfielder Moncur was conscious of the U’s below-par first 45 minutes, during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Coventry City.

“It’s devastating. As we said at half-time, in that first-half we weren’t good enough, me included in that,” rued Moncur.

“We do come out in the second half strong, as has been proved this season, and we could have got something out of the game.

“It’s something we need to get right, because we’ve only got five games left, and I think we need to win three of them to have a chance.

“Otherwise, we will be depending on other teams’ results, and we don’t want to be doing that. We want to sort it out before it’s too late.

“I think some of us just need a kick up the back-side, definitely myself included.

“Some of us need that extra push from the manager,” added Moncur.”

The U’s have a tough away test at promotion-chasing Chesterfield tomorrow evening.