Colchester United manager Kevin Keen says he is confident he can pick his players up for their vital basement battle with Fleetwood Town tonight.

The U’s players were left crestfallen after conceding a late goal to lose 2-1 at home to Sheffield United, on Saturday.

The defeat ensured Colchester remain five points adrift of safety in League One and they are without a league win since October.

However, Keen has no doubts that he will be able to raise his troops ahead of their clash with the Cod Army, who are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference and lie five points above the U’s in the table.

Keen said: “The Fleetwood game is a big game and I’ve already told the lads that after the (Sheffield United) game.

“I’m really confident that I can pick the players up and get them going for the game.

“But I keep coming back to it, over time we have to get results.”

Keen will be looking for some defensive improvement from his Colchester side, following the nature of the two goals they conceded against Sheffield United.

Matthew Briggs was at fault for the Blades’ opener but the U’s boss believes the attacking left-back has the potential to return to the top-flight – providing he cuts out such errors.

“Matthew has to better than he did and as a defence, we have to do better than we did,” said Keen.

“We’ll look at the first goal and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“Matthew Briggs is a player who could be playing at the top level and maybe that’s why he’s playing at this level, because sometimes there’s little things like that or a little slip.

“I’m hopeful that over time, we can get rid of those things and get Matthew playing where he should be playing and I really hope that’s with Colchester but that’s in the future.”

Striker Marvin Sordell played for much of the contest against Sheffield United in a wide position, with George Moncur employed in a more central role.

Keen added: “We have people who we can play in different positions and I think that’s really important so that you can manoeuvre the team about.

“After about 20 minutes, we felt it wasn’t working so we changed it a little bit and in the second half, it really worked.

“I think the crowd could see that there were some good performances in the second half both individually and as a team and they’ve got to stay behind us and keep going.”

Visit the Daily Gazette website for live updates of Colchester's clash with Fleetwood from 7.30pm tonight.