Colchester United chairman Robbie Cowling on fans' criticism

But the U's supremo says supporters being abusive towards him or other club staff is 'unacceptable' and crosses a line.

Some Colchester fans protested against Mr Cowling during the club's 3-1 defeat to Sutton United last night, which leaves them languishing in 19th spot in League Two.

And others have taken to social media to voice their views.

Cowling says fans have a right to say how they feel - but not when it becomes abusive.

Speaking prior to the Sutton game, Mr Cowling told BBC Essex: "I think some of the grumbles that there have been about the experience would have been very different had we been winning games and we accept that.

"Fans have got a right to grumble when we're not doing well and I don't have a problem with that.

"They have a right to take us up on where the experience is.

"But where it does cross a line is when they become really abusive and that cannot be acceptable.

"I think on social media it crosses a line - I'm not on social media so it doesn't impact on me but from what I understand it does.

"I think there's a lot of very foul language being aimed at people, including myself and that crosses the line.

"We want to listen to the fans and what they're saying but it's hard to listen to someone when they're being abusive."

Colchester attracted an attendance of 3,013 for their game against Sutton, last night.

However, U's crowds at the JobServe Community Stadium have generally been down this season, following the return of fans to games.

"Attendances are down and at Colchester, we've been hit a little more than some other clubs," said Mr Cowling.

"There's reasons behind some of it that mean it's not as bad as it looks.

"We got above 3,000 (against Sutton) which is decent for a Tuesday night and then you add in the other things that I've mentioned.

"I think we've had over 100 declined because they have Covid symptoms, we'll probably have 200-300 watching on iFollow.

"We all know that when someone gets an iFollow pass, there's often two or three people watching the game.

"All in all, it's not as bad as some paint it.

"My opinion is that there are things at Colchester that have deteriorated the matchday experience a bit that the club are responsible for and I accept that.

"When we can get things really back to normal, I think there will always be a preference to come and watch something live.

"But we can get a lot of incremental revenue out of iFollow so if 3,000 people come to a home game, which should hope that a lot of people should want to stream the away games.

"We're not going to know for a little while yet, until that unfolds.

"Before the pandemic, we'd introduced a Fan Zone and we'd started to add things to the matchday.

"Some people want to turn up really early and enjoy the experience, often the away fans.

"Then there's a lot of people who want to roll up ten minutes before the game starts and pile in then.

"It is very different and it's changed a lot - we're trying to cater for all people.

"I had to make some decisions early on before I knew what was happening about coming back.

"They're the decisions I took at that time and it's going to affect us, this season.

"We know from the EFL meeting I had that all attendances are down and are heading down - that's a fact.

"People came back for the experience of coming back and for many reasons now, they're dropping.

"When we get through it all, there's no reason why we can't win them back.

"It's still a great experience to come to a football match - we have a good stadium here and we can put on a great matchday.

"It's a little bit worse for us than some other clubs, because we are quite isolated.

"There's not a pub down the road that you can go to.

"I understand - I know it's not ideal."

Colchester brought in a host of new signings this summer, in a bid to avoid a repeat of last season's League Two struggles.

A host of players were brought in from neighbours Ipswich Town and Cowling says their objective was to opt for a mixture of quality and younger players, which has impacted on the depth of their squad.

Cowling said: "I would imagine that if we get our most expensive XI on the pitch, we'd probably match anybody else's most expensive XI.

"But by doing that, that's left us thinner in numbers, so we don't have as many to go around.

"When we're missing a couple of injury, we're going to feel it more than some other clubs who can bring people in.

"Our budget this year is a lot smaller than those clubs and I know that, because I've spoken to clubs about what they're spending, this year. "We've put more money into a smaller number of what we feel is quality players and we're going to have to mix our kids around it.

"It's probably going to make the season a little bit erratic, at times.

"I think this year, we'd probably be around 13th or 14th in terms of our budget, which is £1.6 million.

"Some of the teams at the very bottom are around £1.1 million - £1.2 million; the ones at the top are way into the twos, maybe some closer to the threes."