DANNY Cowley admits Colchester United’s players and staff have had to do some ‘soul searching’ ahead of tonight’s trip to play Chesterfield.

The U’s are looking for a big response against the in-form Spireites, following their disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Cheltenham Town in League Two, at the weekend.

Colchester’s flat performance against the Robins has come in for plenty of criticism and boss Cowley wants his side to show a reaction in their first visit to the SMH Group Stadium in nearly seven years.

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Cowley, who celebrates his 46th birthday today, said: “We all have to do a little bit of soul searching.

“You have a choice – you look in the mirror or you look out of the window.

“I’ve just encouraged them to look at themselves, because we live in the world where everybody is quick to pass the blame and the criticism but the person you can influence the quickest and the easiest is yourself.

“It’s not just the players, it’s everybody – it’s the staff, all of us, we’re a part of it and we’ve let this club down (on Saturday).

“We have to carry that pain and be big enough to shoulder it and come back with a response.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

“You have to give the supporters something to get behind and we didn’t do that.

“That’s our responsibility, nobody else’s.”

Colchester head into tonight’s game in 20th position against a Chesterfield side who are enjoying a good start to life back in the EFL, following their promotion as National League champions, last season.

Paul Cook’s side are eighth in the table – a point off the play-off positions – but boss Cowley knows that the U’s are capable of matching anyone in the division, on their day.

He said: “It’s a great league and the great thing about League Two this year is that everybody can beat everybody on any given day and that’s why we’re working really hard to try to find a good level of consistency.

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“We think if we can find that, then we can have the success that we would like.

“It’s a three-game week, there’s competition for places.

“If you play well and you then recover well and you’re physically ready to play the next game you’ll play, because it’s much easier for me to pick the same team in terms of managing people, in terms of the tactics, the set piece organisation, all of these things make it much easier for us to do.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

“You’re never trying to make the easiest decisions as a manager, you’re trying to make the best decisions, always with the team’s interests at heart.

“You don’t get them all right and it’s always for us to take ownership really.

“We want the players to take ownership, so it’s always important that we take ownership.

“We make hundreds of decisions on a daily, weekly basis.

“We don’t get them all right but when we get one wrong, it’s always to identify it, understand it and own it because if you do that, you’re less likely to make the same mistake again in the future.”