COLCHESTER United head coach Hayden Mullins insists all of the pressure is on his former club Birmingham City ahead of tonight's Carabao Cup clash.

The U's make their first visit to St Andrew's since the opening day of the 2006-07 Championship season when they take on Blues, in the first-round tie.

Colchester head into the game as firm underdogs, against their second-tier opponents (kick-off 7.45pm).

But as Birmingham boss Lee Bowyer plots progress for his side in the competition, his former West Ham United team-mate Mullins says all of the heat is on the hosts.

Mullins, who made 39 appearances for Birmingham between 2012 and 2014, said: “We know it’ll be a tough game – they’re a fantastic side and I know Lee Bowyer; he sets his teams up to win and he’s an attacking manager.

“We know that it’ll be a tough game but the pressure is on them.

“We’ll go there with no pressure on us.

“It’s a good challenge for us and it’s a chance for us to go to a Championship club and see where we’re at.

“We’ll have a look at the squad, we’ll assess it and look at any changes that we need to make.

“It’s going to be a tough game so we need to prepare them and know what we’re doing.

“It’s also about looking after the players and looking at the game, on Saturday.

“We’ll try and be as strong as we can be and as competitive as we can be, because it’ll be a great result for the club if we can get through.

“It can bring in revenue that the club might need with every round we go through and it would be a fantastic result for the club."

Colchester will tonight be aiming to build on their hard-fought opening-day point at Carlisle United.

The U's could make changes to their starting line-up, with Luke Hannant in line to feature after recovering from his recent bout of Covid-19.

Mullins added: “We want to try and be a bit brighter with the football, a little bit braver without putting it at risk.

“It’s very fine margins of when to attack the game and when to sit.

“The more that we get to work with the players over the course of the season, the more cohesion there’ll be.

“They had a good pre-season together and I saw a team out there and a unit and 11 lads who played a very good game at times.

“I think we looked a very solid team, a good team and one that knows what it’s doing and one that hopefully, can only get stronger.

“We’ve still got players to come back like Luke Hannant, who has trained very well."