John McGreal believes the continued emergence of Colchester United’s young starlets this season can be the perfect carrot for the club’s academy players.

The U’s under-21 side will attempt to chalk up a third successive win in Professional Development League Two when they host Coventry City at Florence Park, this afternoon.

The likes of Frankie Kent, Sammie Szmodics and Dominic Smith have all featured in League One this season, under new boss Tony Humes.

And under-21 boss McGreal feels that should be enough motivation alone for the U’s youngsters to perform well at academy level, this season.

McGreal said: “We’ve seen plenty of young players progress to the first team and that should be the main incentive for the younger boys.

“Our brief is to try and get players through the system and up to first-team level and having Category Two certainly helps that.

“We didn’t have the benefit of a games programme last season but now we have something to focus on week in, week out.

“It’s all about application - it’s about building for the football club and the philosophy of what we’re trying to do.

“It’s also a continuation from what we did with the under-18s last season and making sure they get into good habits at under-21 level.

“The good thing is that I know the group that I’m working with and their strengths and weaknesses.

“It’s all about development of the players and installing belief among them - that’s what we’re trying to do.”

McGreal will be looking for his side to make a better start against Coventry than they did in their previous game against Brentford, last week.

The U’s found themselves two goals down after just 12 minutes, before recovering well to score three times and win the game, 3-2.

“We caught a bit of a cold early on against Brentford, last week,” said McGreal.

“To their credit, Brentford started really well in that game and we’ll obviously looking for a better start today.

“We played Coventry when I was still in charge of the under-18 side earlier in the season and going by that, it’ll be a tough game.

“They looked a good group who work hard for each other and I think it’ll be the same with the under-21s.

“I think Coventry have a similar approach to us, in terms of trying to bring young players through to the first team.”

For this story and all of the latest Colchester United coverage, see Tuesday's Daily Gazette.