DANNY Cowley says it is the responsibility of his Colchester United team to ‘step up’ and keep the club in the Football League.

The U’s head into the final weekend of the season with their League Two status still to be confirmed, following a 4-1 defeat to Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night.

Colchester host Crewe Alexandra at the JobServe Community Stadium knowing a point will be enough to keep them up, regardless of Sutton United’s result at play-off bound MK Dons.

However, if the U’s are beaten and Sutton win at Stadium MK with a goal swing of five, Colchester will drop out of the EFL.

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U’s boss Cowley said: “We fight for our lives on Saturday and I’m already looking forward to it.

“Bring it on – I’ve never given up on anything in my life and I’m not about to give up now.

“We all know what’s at stake. It’s our life, this really proud football club.

“If you get relegated from the Football League, in the position that we’re in, you never get over that.

“It lives with you every single day of your life.

“I’m sorry but that’s the facts and if you’re not big enough and tough enough to be able to cope with that responsibility, then you shouldn’t be here - I said to them (after the Doncaster game) don’t bother turning up tomorrow.

Gazette:

“We need people with fortitude, grit, determination and resilience – that’s what we need, that’s what this football club needs and that’s what our supporters need.

“They don’t need people that feel sorry for themselves, that play the victim.

“They need us to step up and we have to step up – it’s our responsibility, it’s our jobs and there’s people’s lives at stake.

“You might think I need to motivate them but I don’t see that.

“If you’re not motivated in this moment then sorry, you’re just in the wrong job.

“There are thousands and thousands of young people that would love to be a professional footballer and not everybody can live in elite sport.

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“You have to be really good technically, you have to be really technically, you have to have physical qualities but you have to be mentally resolute – you have to be tough.”

Colchester lie three points above the relegation zone following back-to-back defeats against Doncaster and Notts County.

The U’s have a number of players unavailable due to injury and suspension at the end of a long, hard season but boss Cowley is urging his players to give it everything.

Cowley added: “I think it was always going to be like this – my feeling was it was never going to be straight forward.

“I know we had the win last Tuesday (against Grimsby) but we knew we had to go to a Notts County team who are a very good team in possession and we knew where we were physically and we knew we had to play Doncaster, who have now had ten wins on the trot.

Gazette:

“We knew they would be tough games.

“We’ve had a lot of games, our fixture schedule has been tough but that’s how it’s been.

“Nobody cares about how many fixtures you’ve played.

“Is there some physical and mental tiredness? Of course there is, it’s a marathon and we’re in the final straight.

“We have some injury and unavailability, which is a challenge; let’s be honest, some of it is our own doing, some of it is the nature of a long, hard football season.

“But we’ve got what we’ve got, we’ve got enough and we’ve just got to make sure we give it all we’ve got.

“If we do that, then we’ll do what we need to do, because we’re a good enough team.”