COLCHESTER Rugby Club head coach Danny Johnston knows his team’s promotion hopes could head one of two ways in tomorrow’s crunch London League division one north game against Eton Manor.

Having had three weeks without a game after waterlogged pitches led to two blank Saturdays, Colchester return to action with a home fixture against the side currently sitting second in the table.

A defeat in the last game they did get played – on January 25 – and subsequent results for other sides while they have had games postponed, have seen Colchester slip to fifth in the division one north table and they are now ten points behind Eton Manor.

So Johnston knows it is make-or-break time for his players at Mill Road tomorrow.

He said: “It is a defining part of our season.

“We know what we are playing for now and if we lose then we will lose the opportunity to choose our own fate, while winning the game means we don’t rely on anyone to do us any favours and it will keep us in the driving seat.

“It will also allow us to keep applying the pressure to (third-placed) Luton, while a loss will mean we have a much lesser ability to affect them.”

For more on this story see Friday's Daily Gazette.