John McGreal has urged his Colchester United players to be mentally switched on at Grimsby Town tonight.

The U’s take on the Mariners looking to end a four-game losing streak on their travels in League Two and record their first win at Blundell Park since 1979.

Colchester are still smarting after their 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Wycombe Wanderers, last weekend.

And head coach McGreal is demanding a response from his side, as they attempt to end their away-day hoodoo.

McGreal said: “It’s all about the mind now – it’s about resetting the mind to put in a performance on Tuesday.

“Yes, we have a poor record away from home but I’ve said to the boys that they must be hurting after that performance (against Wycombe) to come away with nothing.

“We’ll be looking for a reaction and it just so happens that we’re away from home, so it’ll be interesting to see how we react.

“It’s tough going at the minute but we’ll just keep our heads down and keep believing in what we’re doing.

“We seem to be chasing games at this moment in time.

“It’s happened in the last three games where we’ve gone a goal down but we have to regroup and go again.

“We have to keep working hard and I firmly believe we’re not that far away.

“It’s not as if we’re not creating – if we weren’t doing that, then I think it would be a worry but we are.

“(Brandon) Hanlan’s hitting his numbers but we want the other forwards to start hitting them, too.

“(Sammie) Szmodics is on five but he could be on ten goals, at this moment in time.

“We should be scoring more goals and that’s the challenge that we’re giving our strikers as well as our defenders, because we’re a little bit loose.”

Colchester have a number of selection issues ahead of their trip to Grimsby.

Stand-in skipper Tom Lapslie is suspended after picking up his fifth booking of the season in the U’s 2-1 defeat against Wycombe Wanderers, with Sean Murray and Brandon Comley vying to take his place in midfield.

Colchester also have a doubt over Doug Loft, who picked up a hamstring strain on his return to the starting line-up against the Chairboys.

The U’s will also check on defender Tom Eastman who also suffered a sore hamstring against Wycombe but striker Mikael Mandron is available again after serving a one-match ban.

Meanwhile, Kyel Reid could start after making his injury comeback as a substitute against Wycombe.

The Coventry City loanee had been out for a month with a hip injury but has been eased back into the fold.

McGreal added: “We have to be wary with Kyel because he’s missed a number of weeks.

“He had an injection in the early part of last week and we had to play him from the bench.

“He came on and had a good opportunity to score.”