Colchester United certainly have no time to brood about their heavy home defeat against Portsmouth, as disappointing as it was.

The U’s have an important game against fellow play-off hopefuls Mansfield Town to put things right, tomorrow night.

With ten matches left and less than two months of the season remaining, this is not the time for them to feel sorry for themselves.

Without doubt, the manner of Colchester’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of a rampant Pompey side was a bitter pill to swallow, particularly as it unfolded in front of a bumper crowd of more than 6,500.

There will be considerably fewer people at the Weston Homes Community Stadium tomorrow night – but the visit of Steve Evans’ Mansfield side is equally, if not more important now.

John McGreal’s side slipped to tenth in League Two following their defeat against Portsmouth but they remain just three points adrift of the play-off positions.

Crucially, they are also just a point off Mansfield and know that a win will allow them to leapfrog their opponents in the table and at the same time deal a blow to the Stags’ own top-seven aspirations, so there is a lot riding on the encounter.

This Colchester side have generally responded well to setbacks during the course of the season.

They have suffered back-to-back league defeats on just two occasions which says something for the spirit and character within the squad and their home record is one of the best in the division.

Showing such character with more than a dozen players out injured, many of them pivotal to the cause, will inevitably be more difficult.

But now is the time more than any other for them to show their worth and stand up and be counted; to provide a response after the big disappointment of the weekend.

While Colchester must quickly learn the lessons of what went wrong against Portsmouth, they can ill afford it to dwell on it at this crucial stage of the campaign.