COLCHESTER United boss John McGreal has vowed to keep his foot firmly on the accelerator during the race for the play-offs.

The U’s have dipped to 11th after last weekend’s League Two defeat at Crewe Alexandra.

They are four points off the top seven with just eight games left.

However, bullish McGreal is more determined than ever and says he will demand every drop of effort and energy from his players during the run-in.

“I’m going to push and push and push and I tell them that every single day,” said the U’s boss, speaking ahead of tomorrow’s crunch match at home to Luton Town.

“I’m going to demand as much as I can get out of them, whether they’re 18 years of age or 30 something.

“I want them to come with me, either until we get there (the top seven) or can’t get there.

“I’ll keep demanding from the players until they give me everything and I don’t want anyone on the beach. No chance.

“We’ve got to keep going and going.

“The players have got us here. It’s a collective thing. We’re probably looking at needing four, five, maybe six wins and that’s a tall order.

“But let’s give it a really good go, because we haven’t been in this position for a number of years.

“We let ourselves down last weekend but let’s hope we can put in a good solid performance tomorrow to get the result we need.

“When we’ve had to win at home, certainly of late, the boys have put in a performance to get the points and that’s what we’ll be trying to do again tomorrow.

“Our home form is really good and we want to maintain that.”

In addition to the team’s ambitions, McGreal admits his players have their own personal motivation, with players out of contract this summer.

However, he insists that talk of new deals can wait.

“It’s on the backburner and nothing will be said or done about contracts, because we want to stay focused,” he said.

“I don’t want anyone to get distracted.”