NOAH Chilvers insists Colchester United must meet their gruelling schedule head on as they get ready to hit the road in search of some much-needed points.

The U’s make a long midweek journey to face Harrogate Town tomorrow night and follow that up with trips to play Grimsby Town on Saturday and then Salford City, next Tuesday.

Colchester are set to rack up 1,300 miles in total over the space of eight days as they bid to pull away from the League Two relegation zone and midfielder Chilvers says they have to approach a challenging period in a positive way.

Chilvers said: “It’s a demanding time and a demanding season but we all have to make sure that we recover right and are ready for the games.

“We just have to look at this period of three away games in a row now with a positive attitude.

“It’s going to be a bit of travelling on the road but all of the boys will be together, so it’s something we’ve got to look forward to.

“We’re the only people who can get ourselves out of the situation.

“We’re confident we will but we’ve just got to show it.”

Chilvers has been one of Colchester’s most regular starters this season, having only broken into their senior starting line-up at the start of the campaign.

The 20-year-old has clocked up 28 league starts for the U’s so far, with only Tommy Smith and Tom Eastman having started more times.

“The experience I’m having this season is something that I’m really enjoying,” said the Colchester academy product.

“It’s been something I’ve been working for my whole career.

“We’ve had a few setbacks and things like that but we just need to make sure – I need to make sure myself – that I’m not too high after a good performance and not too low after a bad one.

“Wins and losses are part of football but we all know that we need to get out of where we are and that’s what we’ll be trying to do.”

Colchester will be aiming to bounce back at Harrogate tomorrow night, having slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Newport County at the weekend.

Aside from their midweek victory over Carlisle United last week, the U’s have generally struggled to recover from going behind in games this season and Chilvers admits that is an area where they must improve.

He said: “It’s something we need to look at – we need to respond better when we go down as a team, as a collective and make sure that we bounce back.

“We had moments against Carlisle that might have lifted us – Sham (George) made a good save, they got a penalty that wasn’t given but we need to make things like that happen ourselves and we need to liven ourselves up.

“We were looking to keep it going after Tuesday and I think we started the game well.

“But errors over the pitch, not tracking runners and things like that, meant they got the goal and I think it took a bit of life out of us.

“That’s something that we have to make sure doesn’t happen.

“A goal’s a goal and there was a long time to go so we just have to make sure that we keep going and keep our heads up.

“We still have a busy schedule this month – there’s a lot of games and a lot to play for.”