Fiacre Kelleher: Colchester United defender says they must cut sloppiness to climb table

Fiacre Kelleher joined Colchester from Bradford City in January

Defender Fiacre Kelleher says Colchester United must cut out sloppy defensive mistakes if they are to climb the League Two table.

The U's took 10 points out of 12 following the sacking of head coach Ben Garner last month.

But they have lost all three games since Matthew Etherington was confirmed as his permanent replacement.

"We need a bit of tough love between each other, be more honest and demand more from each other," said Kelleher.

The Irishman made his first league start for two months - and only his second of the season - in Tuesday's 3-1 defeat at Doncaster Rovers.

The result left them 21st in the table, five points clear of the relegation places.

Kelleher told BBC Essex Sport that at times, they have been like "rabbits in the headlights" defensively.

The 27-year-old continued: "Second half we just never really got going, way too sloppy, silly mistakes are really costing us.

"There are some good bits in there but at the moment there's no point talking about them because we're just letting each other down in those vital little moments, those set-piece moments when we're not strong enough.

"We need to address this. Whether we need to go out on a Thursday and a Tuesday and practice set-pieces aggressively, corners, marking people, [maybe] that's what needs to be done because at the minute it's just incredibly frustrating.

"Whether we need to change to zonal and make it more man-to-man marking, I don't know, but we need to change it because it's our Achilles heel at the moment."

Colchester are in action against West Ham Under-21s in the EFL Trophy on 5 December, but have a break from league action now until a home fixture against Crawley four days later.