Steve Whitton believes his four strikers with a little help from his defence could hold the key to Colchester United's fortunes for the rest of the season.

Top scorer Scott McGleish, Kevin Rapley, Arsenal loanee Graham Barrett and new record signing Adrian Coote have what it takes to shoot the U's to success.

The U's boss said as he prepared his squad for tomorrow's tough away trip to Port Vale: "If you have a look at all the teams who are doing well, they've all got good strikers who are scoring goals.

"And having four quality strikers such as Barrett, McGleish, Coote and Rapley at the club means that they will always be on their toes.

"No-one likes to be out of the team so it's up to each one of them to catch my eye and make sure that I pick them.

"But the good thing about our game is that all of them will always be in with a chance of scoring because of the way we play.

"The attacking side of our game is our strength and everyone has done well.

"But we all realise that we are shipping too many goals for our liking and are working hard defensively to cut that side of our play out."

The U's have to date leaked 39 goals in the League while at the same time netting 41.

Only two other sides in the Second Division leaders Brentford with 47 and Tranmere with 44 have scored more.

But only four teams, all in the bottom four Wrexham 55, Northampton and Cambridge 48 and Notts County 41 have let in more.

"We've got a chance to put that right at Port Vale tomorrow," said Whitton as he sets out to extend the U's unbeaten run to five matches.

He said: "Football is full of highs and lows and you have to make the most of the highs while you are enjoying them.

"We can play a lot better than we did when winning at Northampton on Boxing Day and I am hopeful that we can achieve another good result against Vale."

"They are certain to be a big handful and give us a really tough game.

"In my view their lowly League position stands for nothing because they are grossly under achieving.

"Steve McPhee is scoring a lot of goals for them and Steve Brooker is also a very good player.

"Vale beat Bristol City the other day which for a team so low in the division is no mean feat indeed."

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Published Friday December 28, 2001