STEVE Ball insists all of Colchester United’s focus is on beating Crawley Town tonight – and getting back on track.

The U’s are in action for the first time since their 6-1 defeat at Exeter City, seven days ago.

It was a hugely disappointing night for Colchester and ahead of back-to-back home games, boss Ball believes now is the chance for them to produce a big response.

Ball said: “We now have to really focus on Crawley and get this parked straight away and move on from it.

“It’s not been ideal not to have a game at the weekend but from a positive point of view, it’s giving us a full week to flush it completely away and analyse it.”

Ball wants to see a big improvement from his Colchester side, following their defeat against Exeter.

The U’s heavy defeat at St James Park was only their third of the season in League Two and they are yet to lose, at the JobServe Community Stadium.

“I work with these guys every day and I think we’ve seen that there’s been a really good desire from the group,” added Ball.

“We’ve won games ugly and we beat Harrogate and Forest Green by not dominating the ball but digging in.

“We dug in against Mansfield and Leyton Orient so I don’t ever question desire with the group.

“But what I do question is organisation when maybe we’re under pressure – the Carlisle away was a game where they really pressed us aggressively and were in our face and turned us.

“We need to calm down in those moments, reset and reorganise but also make better decisions, on the ball.

“If we keep giving the ball away, we’re going to get hurt and that’s what happened (at Exeter).

“I think we’ve shown this year a good defensive nature from back to front but we didn’t (against Exeter).

“They got in too easily from the start of the game and that continued to be the theme of the night.”

Tom Lapslie is pushing to be involved for Colchester tonight.

The midfielder, who is yet to feature this season due to injury, returned to match action at the weekend in the U’s under-23 win over Cardiff City.