Colchester have the credentials

A DIFFERENT type of football match is in store for Athletic tomorrow.

Colchester — unbeaten until a 3-0 home loss to Huddersfield last week — are expected to attack at Boundary Park (3pm kick-off) with an adventurous 4-3-3 formation.

Manager John Ward is an experienced operator at this level and his counterpart Paul Dickov is expecting a tough test of his team's credentials.

After coming back impressively to see off Brentford, though, the Athletic manager isn't apprehensive about what he thinks will be a different sort of test.

"They are resolute and don't lose many games," said Dickov, whose side lie seventh in npower League One, with Colchester only a point behind in 11th. "They are a physical team who like to get the ball from back to front quite quickly, and it will be a different test for us.

"No disrespect to the teams that have come here so far, but a lot like Bristol Rovers and Yeovil have come to defend. They were games we were expected to win and that comes with a different pressure.

"Colchester will be up there at the end of the season, but this is a test I am looking forward to.

"I feel that when we have faced the bigger teams so far, we have been better ourselves."

Well-taken goals from Dean Furman and Chris Taylor were added to by a Dale Stephens penalty at Griffin Park, as Athletic kept up a terrific record.

Not once this season has the opposition won a match in which it has scored the first goal — a statistic Dickov feels illustrates his youthful side's resilience.

"It was a great result for us at Brentford and it was important we bounced back after the Leyton Orient game," he said.

"Although we drew that game, most people around the club including myself and the players felt as if it was a defeat.

"So away from home at a hard place like Brentford, where they don't lose very often, even despite a terrible start the lads showed character again to come back.

"Every time we have gone behind this season we have come back and got something, which says a lot about our character.”