WHEN Colchester United's home clash with Doncaster Rovers was postponed on Tuesday night, Danny Cowley got all of his players to get their feelings out in the open.

“We give them 45 seconds to get it off the chest and their frustrations and disappointment about the game getting called off and I wrote them on a flipchart," said the U's boss.

“Then I turned the flipchart over and say ‘what are the positives?’ and ‘what’s the opportunity?’.

“Samson (Tovide) put his hand up and said ‘I’ll be back!’.

“So, there’s always positives in every moment, in any situation."

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Cowley insists battling to secure Colchester’s Football League status is a ‘great challenge and opportunity’ for his players.

The U’s are battling to remain in League Two and avoid dropping out of the league for the first time in more than 30 years.

Colchester currently lie a point from safety with 11 games remaining, seven of which are at home.

And ahead of the U’s home clash with Walsall tomorrow, their first at the JobServe Community Stadium for a month, head coach Cowley is focusing on the positives.

Gazette:

Cowley said: “We’re so looking forward to building a connection with our supporters.

“We have 42 days left of the season come Saturday and we have 11 games, with some key players coming back.

“We have a great challenge and a great opportunity.

“Always when a game gets called off, the boys are naturally a little bit deflated because they’ve been preparing, they’re ready and they’re looking forward to the game, just like the supporters were.

“When you do train on a matchday and a game is called off, it’s always to make sure that the players are in the right head space and the right frame of mind to be able to train at their best.

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“We’re going to attack these games and do our very, very best.

“The postponement allowed us to get out and watch some of our opponents, in games to come.

“For us, it’s always to see the opportunity in even the most frustrating and disappointing moments.

“I think it’s a good way to live your life.

“For me, I’m always the optimist; I always try to see the best and see the positive – this is how I like to live my life.

“I think by leading that life and by living that way, I think good things happen.

“Nicky and I went to Crawley-Notts County, so we got the opportunity to watch two of our opponents.”

Gazette: Danny Cowley

Colchester dropped into the bottom two in midweek, after their game against Doncaster Rovers was postponed and Forest Green Rovers won at Bradford City.

“In these situations, you have to control what you can control,” added Cowley.

“We were all disappointed that the game was called off, on Tuesday.

“Everybody worked incredibly hard to get the game on but unfortunately at the moment, the weather is getting the better of us.

“We had a ridiculously wet February, I think the wettest in history.

“Even on Tuesday, the amount of rain that we had in this part of the world was pretty incredible.

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“It was frustrating but we’ve got a club where everybody is pulling together and trying really hard.

“There’s not many football clubs where you see director of football, head of commercial, head of media, head of academy, the owner, his family, all in wellies, trying to get the game on and that’s what happened.

“We all worked really hard on Monday to try to make it possible but unfortunately, the game didn’t pass the inspection early on Tuesday morning.

“From there, it’s just for us to control what we control and then train, do some more preparation work and it gave us two extra days’ preparation work for the game on Saturday against Walsall.”