DANNY Cowley expects Harrogate Town to provide a ‘very different challenge’ for his Colchester United this afternoon.
The U’s are back at the JobServe Community Stadium, aiming to build on their positive performances there against MK Dons and Reading with another victory.
Colchester face a Harrogate team who have had a somewhat mixed start to the season, losing at home to Bromley on the opening day but then knocking League One side Lincoln City out of the EFL Cup before claiming a creditable point at Accrington Stanley, last weekend.
U’s boss Cowley wants his side to continue the form they have shown, in their last two games.
Cowley said: “We’re just trying to create a team they can be proud of and how do you do that?
“I think you’ve got to find a team that is resilient, determined, hard-working, that never gives up and also finds their levels consistently.
“We had a really good response from the group off the disappointment of the Wimbledon game, we trained really well.
“The good teams play well and then find another level.
“We had two good performances against Reading and MK Dons. This is a very different challenge.
“The ambition for us all is to find another level and keep trying to develop and improve on a day to day basis, try to be better than yesterday.”
It is a busy week for Colchester, who host Harrogate tomorrow before entertaining Premier League side Brentford in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night and then making the long trip up to Accrington Stanley, next weekend.
U’s boss Cowley says they have no fresh injury concerns, ahead of the Harrogate clash.
“We’re pretty clean. We’ve done really well, credit to everybody,” added Cowley.
“We worked the players really hard on the training pitch with the idea to make them physically robust.
“The way we play we push them.
“If you’re trying to make a group robust, sometimes you have to accept you might lose one or two on the way.
“At the moment we’re pretty clean as a group and that’s so important as we play three games, Saturday, Wednesday and the big challenge will be coming off the game against Brentford preparing for the game Saturday at Accrington because that will involve us travelling on Friday, so it’s going to be demanding for the group but we’ve got a lot of players putting their hands up.
“I think we’ll use the whole group this week and we’re really looking forward to the challenges to come.”
