Tony Humes insists Colchester United’s basement battle at bogey team Crewe Alexandra is not a six-pointer.

But the U’s boss admits the outcome of tomorrow’s game will be a sign of where the sides might end up in League One.

Colchester head to Gresty Road in search of only their second league win of the season, against a Crewe side rooted to the foot of the table.

But despite the clubs’ respective league positions, Humes said he will not be putting any unnecessary pressure on his players.

Humes said: “You start looking at the table at some stage but I think we’ve got better and better in a lot of areas, game by game.

“We have to go into the game with the approach of trying to win it.

“We’ve done that in the four games that we’ve been in charge and tomorrow won’t be any different.

“You have to take the opposition into consideration every time but we won’t look at Crewe any differently to the other teams we’ve played.

“We won’t put any pressure on the players, in terms of our league position.”

See today's Gazette for the full version of this story and a three-page preview of Colchester United's League One game against Crewe Alexandra.