Sammie Szmodics insists there is no time for Colchester United’s players to dwell on their disappointing home defeat against Gillingham.

The U’s trained today in readiness for their trip to play fellow strugglers Crawley Town tomorrow, following their 2-1 loss to the Gills at the Weston Homes Community Stadium on Boxing Day.

Szmodics came off the bench against Gillingham as a half-time substitute for Craig Eastmond and made quite an impact, scoring his first league goal and also having another effort disallowed.

The young U’s midfielder says they must pick themselves up for their trip to play the Red Devils at Broadfield Stadium tomorrow, as they head into the game two points adrift of safety in League One.

Szmodics said: “The boys are a bit upset because it’s another loss but we dominated most of the game.

“We’re down but we have to pick ourselves up because we now we have Crawley away.

“We came in at half-time 2-0 down (against Gillingham) but I think everyone could see that we were dominating the game.

“The confidence was still high in the changing room and we went out for the second half and got a quick goal.

“Unfortunately though, we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net after that.”

Szmodics is pushing for a start against Crawley, following his impressive second-half display against Gillingham.

“The manager just told me to get on and get nearer Fred (Sears), because I think he was a bit isolated,” said Szmodics.

“That’s what I tried to do and I managed to get the goal which seemed to spur the team on but unfortunately, we couldn’t get another.

“It was a yard tap in for me but they all count.

“When you come on as a sub you want to make an impact and with the goal, you just want to push on and get the ball and I felt I did that.

“I thought I’d equalised – I got myself in a position where I thought I’d scored but the linesman had his flag up.”

For all of the latest Colchester United news, see the Daily Gazette.