WAYNE Brown is refusing to press the panic button despite Colchester United's relegation fears deepening.

The U's lie three points above the League Two drop zone, following their 3-0 defeat at Northampton Town.

Colchester are now preparing for a run of four straight home games, beginning with a home clash with Hartlepool United tomorrow night.

And with 15 matches still remaining this season to pull themselves out of relegation danger, nine of them at home, interim head coach Brown says now is the time to stay calm.

Brown said: “There’s a third of the season left where there’s loads of points up for grabs.

“There’s some important games coming up.

“Of course, we need to learn from this and we need to be better at the things we weren’t good enough at.

“There were too many players who weren’t at the races and you can’t afford to have that happen at Northampton.

“We need to take the positives out of the game which there was, regardless of what everyone might be thinking because we’ve lost the game 3-0.

“We need to take those positives into the Hartlepool game, hit the ground running and take the game to them.

“Since we’ve come in, the players have been first class.

“We’ve got nine points on the board, we’d only conceded six goals in our previous six games (before Northampton) - that’s one a game - and we’ve got 1.5 points per game, over that stretch.

“So let’s not press the panic button."

Gazette:

Brown refused to be critical of individual players following the defeat at Northampton.

The Cobblers claimed victory at Sixfields, thanks to goals from Fraser Horsfall, Sam Hoskins and substitute Benny Ashley-Seal.

“I’m not going to dig any of my players out because to a man, they’ve been first class since I came in seven games ago," said Brown.

“Yes we need to take responsibility as a collective which we will and learn from errors and people switching off and people not marking in the box but we need to do it quickly.

“Their reactions have been first class - look at the Swindon game, for us to grind out a draw with nine men, Mansfield away where yes, we lost the game but they kept going until the 97th minute.

“It’s definitely there – we’ll create opportunities, we’ll get into good areas and it’s just about being ruthless in both boxes and I’m sure we’ll get the points on the board."

Colchester are back in action tomorrow night when they host 12th-placed Hartlepool United, at the JobServe Community Stadium (kick-off 7.45pm).