Jon Waldron: My views on the U's (From Gazette)

Jon Waldron: My views on the U's

12:30pm Wednesday 20th February 2013 in Sport By Jonathan Waldron

Source of hope - Colchester United will be hoping that striker Jabo Ibehre maintains his good form for them over the coming weeks.

So can Colchester United avoid relegation this season?

Oldham Athletic's win at Stevenage last night saw the U's drop back into League One's relegation zone, a point adrift from safety.

With 14 games to go, some are predicting that Colchester will need as many as 52 points to survive in the third tier this season.

They are currently 20 points adrift of that, so it doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that they still need plenty more wins if they are to stay afloat in the division.

Colchester are confident they will do just that, especially having tasted victory in three of their recent games with their new-look side.

Indeed, having presided over only one draw during his reign as U’s boss, Joe Dunne will certainly be gunning for victory in every single match between now and the end of the season.

But where will the points be won?

Crucially, Colchester still have to travel to play three of the four sides that sit around them in the table – Oldham, Bury and Hartlepool United.

Clearly, those matches will be vital in dictating who survives in League One this season.

But in the next two months or so, the U’s will also face a number of sides with very different targets in mind and in Tranmere Rovers and Yeovil Town, the U’s face sides in serious contention for automatic promotion in their next two matches.

The U’s also take on promotion-chasing Bournemouth and Coventry City in the coming weeks but also play plenty of sides entrenched in mid-table, such as Notts County, Crewe Alexandra and Carlisle United, on the final day of the season.

Let’s hope that Colchester have preserved their League One status well before their longest trip of the season up to Cumbria, on April 27.