WAYNE Brown is set to make changes to his Colchester United side for tonight’s home clash with Hartlepool United.

The U’s interim head coach was disappointed with the manner of his side’s performance in both boxes in their defeat at Northampton Town and is looking for a reaction from his players tonight, as they seek a vital League Two victory.

The likes of Noah Chilvers and Corie Andrews (both pictured below) made an impact off the bench at Sixfields for Colchester, for whom Brendan Wiredu and Tom Dallison were unused substitutes in their 3-0 reverse.

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The U’s also left Luke Hannant, Miles Welch-Hayes and Armando Dobra out of the squad for the Cobblers trip and interim boss Brown said he has the scope to make alterations to his starting line-up, ahead of the Pools clash.

Brown said: “I’ve said to the lads they’ve been brilliant but we have got competition for places and if people continue not to turn up, there’s changes that can now be made and they will be.

“Every good team has strength in depth and we have that.

“We’ve not got many injuries and we’ve left four behind and we’ve got seven sitting on the bench, chomping at the bit (at Northampton).

“We tried to be positive with the substitutions.

“We tried to get ourselves back in the game at 2-0 down and we hit the post, we had chances and we made their keeper work.

“It wasn’t as though we accepted a defeat with 20 or 30 minutes to go.

“We tried to be productive and positive with the substitutions and I thought they came on and had an impact.”

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Colchester will check on the fitness of striker John Akinde today, ahead of the Hartlepool clash.

The experienced forward has missed the U’s last four matches, due to Covid-19.

“We’ve had a week’s training with John,” said Brown, speaking after the Northampton game.

“He’s really struggled with the training on Monday and Tuesday.

“He couldn’t get in (on Friday) because of the weather and that was the player’s safety more than anything else which is always paramount in those kind of conditions.

“We decided that he wasn’t in the best place to contribute (at Northampton) but he’ll have some more training sessions and let’s hope he’s in a better place come Tuesday.”