BEN Garner has urged Colchester United and their supporters to ‘stand together’ in the aftermath of their 5-0 thrashing at Forest Green Rovers.

The U’s crashed to a humiliating defeat at The New Lawn, a result that leaves them only out of the League Two relegation zone on goal difference.

Some disgruntled Colchester supporters let boss Garner and his players know exactly how they felt both at half-time and full-time at Forest Green, as they slumped to a third successive defeat.

A number of U's players, including skipper Connor Hall, Mandela Egbo and Joe Taylor, also chatted to unhappy fans after the final whistle.

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Garner has stressed he shares the U’s fans’ frustrations – but insists barracking players will not help anyone.

Garner said: “The important thing is that we have to stay together.

“We got booed off last week (against Morecambe) and rightly so.

“But we’re getting booed off at half-time (at Forest Green) at 1-0 down, players are getting slaughtered by their own fans, I’m getting verbally abused walking off the pitch at half-time.

Gazette:

“We’re 1-0 down and with a chance of getting back into the game – it doesn’t help anyone.

“I get it at the end and my apologies to all of the supporters who were here, because that’s nowhere near good enough.

“I share their frustrations, even more so because of the work we put in and the amount of hours we put in, in the week.

“But there’s no point taking it out on the players.

Gazette:

“They’re young players as well and it’s hindering them.

“We’re having players getting taken off and being cheered that they’re being taken off the pitch.

“It doesn’t help anyone; it makes things harder – we need to turn it around and we need the supporters as well.

“We need to stand together.

READ MORE: Colchester United fans have their say on Forest Green thrashing

“It’s on us to turn things around and give the supporters something to cheer about and get behind.

“But we certainly don’t need that made harder than it already is.

“No-one wins from separating and going down that way – the supporters, the players, myself, the club as a whole.

“It’s on us to get the supporters behind us and we’ve done that on good occasions, this season.”

Gazette:

Colchester find themselves languishing near the foot of the League Two table again, on the back of three successive seasons of struggle.

However, Garner is adamant that he can still turn things around.

“Being blunt, there’s a losing culture at the club and there has been for a long, long time,” added Garner.

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“We can keep changing players and keep changing head coaches but culturally, it’s been a losing culture and we’ve got to try and turn that around.

“It’s been a lot harder than I expected it to be but I’m still going to put the work in to do that and I still believe that we can turn this season around.

“There’s a long way to go, there’s still lots of games and it’s not disastrous by any stretch.

“But we’re not achieving what we should be achieving at the moment.”