COLCHESTER United interim head coach Hayden Mullins insists he will not allow his players to ease up – despite them being on the brink of League Two safety.

The U’s have taken a huge step towards securing their Football League status after recording back-to-back wins, against Southend United and Walsall.

Colchester travel to play promotion-chasing Cheltenham Town on Saturday sitting nine points above the drop zone, with three games remaining.

They could secure their fourth-tier status at the weekend but Mullins insists they will be fully focused on putting everything into their remaining games and finishing the season strongly.

Mullins, speaking at the club’s Florence Park training ground this afternoon, said: “If you look at the table and you see where we are and it’s a natural feeling to think that we’re almost there.

“But what we’re trying to drive home and what we’re trying to keep pushing at is that it’s not over until the last game.

“That’s definitely where we’re coming from, as a club and as staff, we’re trying to drive the players into that kind of thinking.

“The next three games are so important for us and we want to try and get as many points as we can.

“We’re not going to take our foot off the gas – it’s definitely not done and it’s not over.

“We know that and we also know that the result the other night was massive.

“The boys have got a spring in their step and there’s a good feeling.”

Mullins has claimed eight points from a possible 15 in his five games in interim charge, since taking over in the Colchester hot seat at the end of last month.

He inherited a side who had won only one of their previous 22 matches and the former Watford caretaker boss insists he is delighted with the way the players have responded.

“It’s a really good atmosphere,” said Mullins.

“It’s always tough when you’re not winning games and with every game that goes by when you haven’t won, it’s always lingering so to win our last two games in the manner that we did has been excellent.

“We’ve tried to come in and we’ve tried to be really positive.

“We’ve tried to lift the mood and also try to bring a little bit of confidence back.

“They’ve responded – you can do as much as you can do off the pitch and you can have as many ideas and formations and ways to try and pick up points but at the end of the day, they take the pitch, the 11 who are out there and the boys who come off the bench and help.

“So it’s big credit to the lads.”

Colchester took a big step towards League Two safety on Tuesday night with their deserved win over Southend, in arguably the biggest-ever Essex derby.

Mullins said: “They’ve played under pressure and it has been pressure, at times and they’ve got the results we’ve asked of them.

“The messages and what we’ve wanted to achieve in a game, they’ve carried out to a tee.

“It was a stop start game (against Southend) – we knew that.

“The situation that Southend are in, they were going to make it really scrappy and they were playing for set plays and it was just about getting the job done really and it was a professional performance.”