Colchester United manager Geraint Williams is confident a healthy points haul over the festive period will help turn the club's season around.

The U's begin a hectic sequence of games tomorrow when they travel to play fellow strugglers Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.

There are a dozen valuable points up for grabs, in a busy sequence of four games in ten days in the Coca-Cola Championship.

And Williams is fully aware that a good run of form over Christmas can kick-start Colchester's season and pull them away from the danger zone.

He told the Gazette: "The Christmas period is very important because there are 12 points up for grabs.

"A good injection of points this time of year can give everyone a boost and that's what we're looking to get.

"Everyone is working very hard to turn these results around.

"We don't want to be in the bottom three but the only way to get out of it is to work hard, stick together and be positive."

A great deal has changed at Loftus Road since the clubs last met in the Championship in October.

The U's won 4-2 that night to chalk up their first home win of the season.

However, since then Rangers' caretaker boss - former U's assistant manager Mick Harford - has left the club.

And ex-Colchester loanee Hogan Ephraim - who scored in that entertaining encounter - has returned to West Ham United.

Italian Luigi De Canio has arrived as the club's new first team coach and the club are unbeaten in three matches.

With Rangers, like the U's, heading into the clash in the bottom three, Williams knows the importance of the fixture.

"It's similar to last Saturday in that QPR are near to us in the league so it's a chance for us to win and for a club around us to lose - it's a big game," he said.

"It's a new set-up down there - they've changed their manager and there's new personnel in place.

"But that game did show that if we're at the top of our game then we can beat them."