Tony Humes insists he will not "hide away" from the challenge of turning around Colchester United’s flagging fortunes.

The U’s have suffered five straight defeats in League One and have shipped ten goals in their last two league games.

Colchester lie five points adrift of safety and are facing a crucial three league games this month, starting with their vital clash with fellow strugglers Yeovil Town on Saturday.

Humes questioned his players’ work-rate following their 4-1 home defeat against Rochdale, branding their performance “unacceptable”.

But the U’s boss has vowed he and assistant manager Richard Hall will do everything in their power to steer Colchester away from trouble.

Humes said: “We’re going to have to dig ourselves out of it - if it comes down to basics and hard work, then that’s what we’ll do.

“It’s a huge task but that’s what Richard (Hall) and I have been entrusted to do.

“That’s what we have got to do but we’ll only do it if players want to work for us.

“We’ll not shirk away or hide away from it but we can only do it if players want to work for us and push themselves harder every day.

“We have three huge games coming up.

“If we don’t match Yeovil’s hard work, Gillingham’s on Boxing Day or Crawley’s on the 28th, we’re going to struggle.

“It comes down to that basic one thing and that is to work hard for yourself and for your team-mates.”

Humes has warned his players that he may be forced to make changes to his squad, in order to improve performances and results.

But the U’s boss said he is reluctant to make changes and wants continuity.

Humes added: “There are possibilities of loan if we want to but we don’t want to do that unless it makes the team better.

First and foremost, we can only use what we have at this moment in time.

“Continuity within any team helps breed success.

“When we first took over, we had a similar team for the first nine or ten games which was our best period.

“We don’t really want to chop and change the team.

“But with games coming up in a short space of time over Christmas, you have to look at what personnel is available.”