Interim manager Matthew Etherington hopes that his Colchester United side can use their home advantage to their benefit as they welcome Swindon Town to Essex.
The U’s have played away for three matches on the bounce, picking up two wins against Grimsby Town and Accrington Stanley before their FA Cup loss to Shrewsbury, whilst Swindon Town travel to the Community Stadium fresh from their humbling to non-league Aldershot Town in a 7-4 loss at the County Ground.
Former West Ham man Etherington hoped his side could continue their good run when the interim boss makes his home debut in charge at Colchester.
“It’s a good game for us against a good Swindon team,” the former West Ham man said. “We’re at home and with what we’ve been doing recently, it’ll be a good opportunity and against Sutton as well to get the points.
“We’ll be happy to get back in front of the home fans and hopefully, get a positive result. The dressing room is still positive even after the defeat so we’ll be looking to maintain that heading into two home games and picking up points.”
The 42-year-old also spoke of selection issues following Charlton Athletic‘s decision to make loanee Zach Mitchell available for the trip to Shrewsbury 24 hours before the game.
“We didn’t know that Zach was eligible to play until 10.45 am on Friday morning when we were out on the training pitch. It wasn’t an ideal situation and we were told initially that Charlton wouldn’t let him be cup-tied which was fine, that’s their prerogative.”
Mitchell has appeared 14 times for the U’s this season, including the FA Cup tie, and has bagged twice in an impressive spell.
“We were planning to be without Zach,” added Etherington. “We’ve done the prep, Zach’s training with the 21s and getting a higher load session in and I got told that he was now available. I thought with all of the prep that’s gone on and with Dallo coming back and probably being ready to start a game, it was the right opportunity to give him some minutes.
“Zach was on the bench and came on and did really well, I thought.”
Colchester are currently 20th in the League Two table, six points clear of the drop zone. Etherington’s tenure as head coach has not been without drama – he initially took over after Ben Garner left, but was forced to stand down after a contract dispute with Crawley Town. He was reinstated on Halloween, just in time to see Salop despatch the U’s from this season’s FA Cup.
Writer’s View
Matthew Etherington will hope that the good times continue at Colchester United tonight as they welcome a wounded Swindon. The U’s have claimed two great wins against Grimsby and Accrington and gave League One Shrewsbury a real challenge in the cup. The Robins will be a litmus test to see if the interim boss can keep the form going and perhaps make himself the frontrunner for the permanent job.
Swindon travel to Essex reeling from their own cup loss. Going 7-0 down to lower-league opposition at home is simply unacceptable. Michael Flynn will have a burning desire to correct that by unleashing his vengeance on a U’s side that is still lurking at the bottom end of the table. The last 15 minutes of the Aldershot loss should be encouraging and must continue into tonight for any sort of redemption for what happened on Saturday.
