Colchester United goalkeeper Sam Walker pulled no punches after Saturday’s dismal 3-0 home defeat to fellow League Two strugglers Leyton Orient.

The U’s sunk to third-from-bottom, just a place and a point above the Football League relegation zone, following another depressing result in front of their long-suffering supporters.

This time the performance matched the result, with Walker labelling it as “rubbish,” against a side that started the day in the bottom two.

“That was not good enough, and we can have no excuses,” said Walker, who was powerless to prevent a brace from Jay Simpson and a lethal strike by right-back Nicky Hunt from inflicting a heavy defeat on the woeful U’s.

“That was rubbish really. We conceded goals at poor times, and we did not take our own chances. Both the performance and the result were very poor.

“We are all hurting at the moment. It is a very quiet dressing room, and we can only apologise to our supporters for this performance, which is what we tried to do by clapping them at the end. They did not get their money’s worth today.”

The U’s have now gone 12 matches, in all competitions, without a victory, an awful run extending back to a 3-2 home success over Blackpool on September 10.

By the time thet travel to Yeovil on Saturday, it will have been 10 weeks since the U’s last won a match. That run includes no wins in nine league games, with just four points gathered from a possible 27.

“We have big issues now,” confessed Walker.

“We are sliding down the table and we are not winning matches. Something has got to change, and very quickly.

“We have to deal with what has been going on. We have simply got to get out of the hole that we’ve got ourselves into.

“It’s not working for us. The defence is not clicking and neither is the attack. The goals are just not going in for us, and we are conceding at the other end. We have to do some hard thinking about where we are at, both as a team and as individuals.

“We all knew that this was a big day for the club, in front of a big crowd. Lots of youngsters from local football teams were watching, hoping for a good showing and a good result.

“It’s not been right for two months now, but we still have 30 matches left and plenty of time to turn it around. And I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before we do start picking up some results.

“When we came down last season, we thought it would be a chance for us to get back up, but now we must improve otherwise we will be in another relegation battle.”