JOHN McGreal has urged his Colchester United players to ‘keep their heads’ ahead of their trip to play league leaders Crewe Alexandra tonight.

The U’s head to Gresty Road still reeling from suffering back-to-back League Two defeats for the first time this season, having lost to both Morecambe and Crawley Town.

Colchester are looking to get back on track against the Railwaymen at Gresty Road and McGreal is set to make changes to his starting line-up for the game.

But the U’s head coach wants his players to keep their cool, as they bid to get back to winning ways.

McGreal said: “We have to keep our heads while things are going (on) around us.

“It’s about remaining calm and trying to pick the bones out of it.

“We now go from the bottom of the league (side) to the top of the league and we’ll see how the players react.

“We have to utilise the squad but we can’t lose our heads.

“It was a disappointing performance (against Morecambe) and there’s no getting away from that.

“We’ve had enough plaudits this season alone and now it’s time to take the criticism when it comes.

“We should be peppering their goal and we didn’t.

“We went 4-4-2 and I don’t think we utilised that as much as we should have.

“We didn’t create the chances we’d have liked and I think that was down to mis-placed passes, taking too much time and forcing passes which culminated in us kicking the ball away or turnover in possession and we were lacking in quality.”

Brandon Comley is in line for a recall for Colchester tonight.

The former QPR midfielder missed the U’s last two games after linking up with Montserrat on international duty but is now back and available for selection.

McGreal said: “I had a good chat with Brandon (last Friday).

“He’d been on a plane forever and a day again it seemed coming back and it’s a bit disappointing, because he’s been excellent.

“Sometimes when you play a boy who’s particularly fatigued you get your injuries and we can’t afford that, even though we have ready replacements to come in but they weren’t able to put in that performance that we’re looking for.”

Winger Callum Harriott is hoping to keep his place in the Colchester side, after making his long-awaited first appearance since returning to the club last month.

The 25-year-old winger returned on a two-year deal but has been forced to wait for his first appearance because of a quad injury.

McGreal added: “Callum has been training – we tried to keep it a bit hush hush really.

“He got good minutes the other night with the under-23s (against Heybridge Swifts) and we felt as though he was up to speed.

“We felt as though it was ideal to get him involved.

“We could have had him off the bench but on the pitch, he can create a bit more for us.”