GOALKEEPER Ben Williams says no-one can put more pressure on the Colchester players than themselves.

GOALKEEPER Ben Williams says no-one can put more pressure on the Colchester players than themselves.

Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Hartlepool was the U’s sixth successive away loss. They have now taken just three points from their last 11 matches in a dramatic end-of-season collapse.

With a play-off place rapidly slipping away, there has been a growing level of dissenting voices from the Colchester fans of late.

Shot-stopper Williams fully understands their frustrations though and has vowed that the side will keep fighting until the end.

“I don’t think anyone is expecting too much from us at all – we expect more from ourselves,” said the 27-year-old former Manchester United trainee.

“We put ourselves on a pedestal by saying that we wanted sixth-place as a minimum. We wanted to go up automatically and up until 10 games ago we were on course for that.

“We are football fans as well. We want to win every game we are in, so it wouldn’t be fair to say that the press or fans put too much pressure on the players.”

He added: “The problems have come when we’ve played teams in the bottom half of the table because, in games we are expected to win, we’ve come unstuck. That’s something we as players have to take blame for.

“Until it’s mathematically over though, it’s not over. We’re still in with a chance of the play-offs - I can look you in the eye and say that. Until it’s mathematically over anything can happen in football.”