COLCHESTER United’s players have the resilience to turn around their faltering fortunes and get back on track.

That is the view of experienced goalkeeper Rene Gilmartin, who insists his U’s team-mates can recover from their disappointing festive form in League Two.

A run of one point from a possible nine – and one win in five matches – has seen Colchester drop out of the play-off positions.

The U’s are aiming to get back on track against bottom club Notts County, this weekend – and player-coach Gilmartin is adamant they can turn things around.

Gilmartin said: “The season is very long and the games come thick and fast.

“I fully expect a response from this group – it’s a great group of lads.

“The only way we can look is forward and we’re all going to do that and go again on Saturday.

“We’ve had an amazing first half of the season – we were joint third in the league going into the (Crawley) game and performing superbly.

“This squad has resilience and we’ll go again.

“I have full belief in this group, along with the management and the staff and everyone’s behind each other in this dressing room.

“The manager has told us to get back to meeting our standards and what we do well – move the ball quickly and be confident.

“He wants the team to enjoy playing football and he wants that to be shown on the pitch.

“The application is there and it’s not for the want of trying.”

Gilmartin suffered a disappointing return to Crawley Town, where he spent a month on loan in the 2011-12 season.

Colchester slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Broadfield Stadium on New Year’s Day, despite their hosts playing an hour of the game with only ten men following Joe McNerney’s first-half dismissal.

“It was a big opportunity missed – that’s the way we look at it,” said the 31-year-old.

“They went down to ten men and 11 v 11, we were on top in the game and performing the way we have been.

“There were chances before half-time and you could sense a goal coming and we should have enough to go and take three points.

“If you look at the body language of the lads in the first half, they were vocal and still urging each other on.

“Crawley were backs against the wall for the whole game and they defended immensely, throwing their bodies on the line.

“It just didn’t fall for us and sometimes, it can be difficult against ten men.

“We’re the attacking team in these games but you’ve got teams who are sitting in against us.

“They see the threats that we have – we have players who can cause problems and teams are defending well against that.”