Colchester United have the worst defensive record in League One, and that needs to be rectified if the U’s are to remain in the top half of the table.

Tony Humes’ men, after a good last four weeks, lurched back into their old ways during last Saturday’s dismal 4-2 defeat at lowly Shrewsbury.

Manager Humes admitted that his side showed signs of picking up some bad habits again, and this despite a recent run that had yielded four wins and two draws from a six-match sequence, before the 1-0 home defeat to Bury last Saturday week.

Conceding four unanswered goals to the Shrews transformed a 2-0 half-time lead into a 4-2 loss for the stunned U’s at New Meadow, leaving them with the poor record of 22 goals conceded from their first 12 league games.

That is more than any other team in the division, including the likes of bottom two clubs Crewe and Fleetwood.

“It was back to Chesterfield,” admitted Humes, with reference to his side’s leaky defending during the 3-3 draw at 10-man Chesterfield, just more than a month ago.

Humes continued: “We conceded four goals, all in-and-around the six-yard box. We couldn’t deal with the physical presence of Shrewsbury’s players, or the movement, and that’s where we were a few weeks ago.

“We came out of it then, but there were certainly signs on Saturday that we have dropped back into it.

“The players can’t accept that, because from a really strong position we have been done by basic football. We have showed in the past that we can recover from that, but we didn’t do it at Shrewsbury.

“If you can’t defend against a team who is going to put the ball into the box, at this level, then you are going to struggle.

“Teams are going to look at that and will be thinking this is how we are going to beat Colchester,” added Humes.

The U’s face a tough trip to Wigan Athletic this weekend.