MILESTONE man Tom Eastman admits Colchester United must return to winning ways quickly against Morecambe this weekend.

Stalwart Eastman made his 300th U’s appearance against Stevenage on Boxing Day but ended up on the losing side, after they were beaten 2-1 at the JobServe Community Stadium.

Colchester slipped to fourth in League Two – and out of the automatic promotion places – as a result of the defeat and long-serving defender Eastman knows it is important that they immediately get back on track.

“It’s not a bad thing when you have another game so quickly,” said Eastman, who is now placed 19th in the U’s all-time appearance list.

“We have Morecambe at home and we have to get back on that winning run at home.

“It’s a massive game - no good team loses two games in a row and we have to come back on Saturday and get the three points.

“We had a brilliant team performance at MK Dons and it was obviously a bit different against Stevenage, so it’s frustrating.”

Eastman returned to Colchester’s starting line-up for their 1-0 win at MK Dons last weekend and kept his place for the Stevenage game, having been out for six weeks with a head injury sustained in his side’s FA Cup defeat at Accrington Stanley.

The 27-year-old suffered a fractured eye socket following a clash of heads in the opening minute of his team’s 1-0 loss at Accrington but insists he is back to full fitness now.

“I’m feeling fine,” said the Colchester-born centre-back.

“Even though it was a head injury, I’ve been training the last four or five weeks.

“It’s nothing too bad and fitness-wise, I feel good.

“Hopefully, I can keep fit for the rest of the season.

“Every player wants to be playing and it’s good to be back out there.

“I’ve been relatively lucky on the injury front over the last few years and I’m really happy to be back.”

Eastman had a big hand in Luke Prosser’s late goal against Stevenage but the centre-back admits it was of little consolation, following Colchester’s defeat.

He added: “It was a frustrating day.

“We dominated the ball and moved it around OK.

“But we didn’t really test the goalie enough and didn’t have too many clearcut chances.

“We scored one at the end but apart from that, we didn’t really look like scoring.

“They got the early goal and almost sat back and let us have it in front of them.

“Their first goal was a bit unfortunate for Reg (Rene Gilmartin).

“We probably should have defended it better – it was a free header that hit the post, hit Reg and went in.

“The second goal was a bit of a killer for us – we thought it was a foul but we were 2-0 down and there’s a long way to go in the game.

“We probably should have done better from going 2-0 down and tested their goalie more and caused them more problems.

“We were still in the game though and we felt we could come back, with the change of formation at half-time as well.

“We had a little go at the end and scored a late goal but it was too little, too late.”