Ryan Inniss admits Colchester United’s players must show more fight if they are to rise up the League Two table.

The U’s defender, on loan from Crystal Palace, says their performance in losing 3-1 at Cheltenham Town last weekend was not good enough - and has called for them to up their standards collectively against old foes Wycombe Wanderers, this weekend.

Inniss told the Daily Gazette: “From back to front I felt we didn’t have that edge, tenacity and fight about us.

“It’s a team with young lads and we need to pick ourselves up.

“We need to be a team that picks up results, even when we’re not playing well.

“We’re not going to be able to play expansive football every week so we’ll need to get dogged and dig in at times, like we did against Crawley, to gain results.

“That will come with experience and with time but we need to change it now and be ready to learn, pick it up from the coaches and go again.

“It’ll be a tough game against Wycombe - they’ll play similar to Cheltenham, so we need to show more fight and have more about us to get to the first and second balls.

“Listen, we’ll work hard on it in the week and come again on Saturday.

“We’ll do some tactical stuff in training but I think it’s more within ourselves.

“We’ve produced unbelievable in the first half against Crawley and in the second half against Chesterfield, so it’s putting that all together to do what we can do."

Colchester’s reverse at Cheltenham was their fourth defeat on the trot on their travels but Inniss admits they would have struggled to secure a result at any venue, with such a below-par performance.

“Whether the game had been at home or away, we can’t perform like that and win a game of football,” said the 22-year-old, who had a brief loan spell at Cheltenham in 2013.

“We went into the game on the back of two good performances and we need to perform better – we know that.

“It was my first away game for Colchester and it would be very tough for me to answer why we’ve not won away from home yet.

“There’s obviously a slight edge at home but once we get the first one, I think we’ll go on a real run.”

Inniss has now made three successive starts for Colchester, after recovering from a knee injury suffered prior to joining them on loan from Palace on deadline day.

He added: “I’m pleased to have played three games in seven days.

“I’d have liked to have put in a much better performance at Cheltenham.

“I don’t think I was at it personally and I can’t put my finger on why that was.

“But I feel like I’ve got a little bit fitter in each game I’ve played.”