COLCHESTER United have received a big boost on the fitness front ahead of their crunch home against Barrow tomorrow.

The U's are set to welcome back leading scorer Freddie Sears for the League Two basement battle, at the JobServe Community Stadium.

Sears, who has netted 11 goals for Colchester this season, missed his side's 2-0 defeat at Forest Green Rovers, on Tuesday night.

But he returned to training yesterday and is set to be available for the Barrow clash along with Armando Dobra, who also missed the Forest Green match.

Colchester head coach Hayden Mullins said: "Freddie has trained - he had a sickness bug on the day of the Forest Green game.

"But it was nice to have him back in and touch wood, he'll be fit and available."

Colchester have been further boosted by the return of Frank Nouble, Miles Welch-Hayes and Shamal George.

All three could be in the U's squad for the Barrow game, after returning to training following injury lay-offs.

Mullins said: "From where we were against Sutton (last Tuesday) where we looked at the bench and had a lot of teenagers on there, we're starting to look really strong again.

"It's pleasing to see the guys out there - they've had a full week's training now and they'll be back in and around it for Saturday."

Gazette:

Colchester played well against league leaders Forest Green on Tuesday, despite their 2-0 defeat.

They created plenty of chances and boss Mullins wants to take those things into the Barrow clash.

He said: “It’s about taking the positives out of the game and working on the negatives and hopefully get a positive result on Saturday.

“One of the positives already is that we’re at home and hopefully, it can help us get a positive result.

“It’s been a long time and it’s definitely something we can build on, from the outset.

“There’s also the in-game stuff that we need to take into the performance.

“If we’re not getting the results we require away from home, we definitely need to make sure our home form is right.

“We need to build on that form where we were before and continue it on while also hopefully chipping away at the away form as well.

“We know where we are in the table and we know where Barrow are.

“The three points would put us above them and we need to start putting wins together and runs together and we want to start doing that as soon as we can.

“It would be great to start it at home and we’re going to attack the game from the outset and be nice and positive and hopefully get the result we want."

Gazette:

Colchester ran out 3-2 winners over Barrow when the two teams last met in an eventful game at Holker Street, last September.

Goals from Alan Judge, Freddie Sears and Tom Eastman secured the U's victory, their last league win on the road.

Mullins added: “I’m sure that they’ll want to come to our place and get a positive result and set up right but they also won’t want to open it up too much.

“When we played them earlier in the season, there were five goals that night and we came out on top – it was a slim one but we came out on top.

“It was a very positive and strong performance from ourselves, going down to ten men and scoring after that was an excellent way to win the game.

“We hope we keep it tighter at the back on Saturday and hope for a similar scoreline in terms of goals.

“If we can do that, it’ll be a good day for us.

“I don’t think either club will want as open a game as the one we had up there.”