Clive Platt believes improved away form can fire his Colchester side into the automatic promotion places.
Us front man targets wins on the road in promotion bid
Colchester United can still gain promotion automatically if they improve their away form, according to striker Clive Platt.
The Us were condemned to a 2-1 defeat at Carlisle on Saturday and have gone four games without a win.
The loss left the Essex club sitting fifth in the League One table and trailing second place Leeds by eight points.
However Platt - on target at Brunton Park for his ninth goal of the season - reckons going up via the top two is not beyond his side.
But he admitted their form away from the Community Stadium must improve in the run in.
Aidy Boothroyd's side have won seven fixtures on the road during the campaign, the last of which came five games ago in a 1-0 triumph at struggling Yeovil.
Lottery
A trip to mid-table Walsall hands United the chance to get back on track in their next outing, with Platt conceding he is keen to occupy the spots currently held by Norwich and Leeds.
The 32-year-old told
skysports.com: "We hope that we can get into the automatic promotion places because the play-offs are a bit of a lottery after all the hard work you put in during the season.
"We know that if we play to our best then we've got a chance of catching the top two. We've got a few away games coming up and I feel that if we are going to get into that top two then our away form is something we definitely need to improve on.
"It is by no means a bad away record, but it is not the stuff of champions as well, so if we can add a couple of wins to it in the next few weeks we can do our chances of going up automatically a big boost."
