WAYNE Brown insists Colchester United will make the trip to play in-form Bristol Rovers feeling full of encouragement tonight.

The U's head to the Memorial Stadium in confident mood following back-to-back wins, aiming to extend their unbeaten run to five matches.

Colchester's 3-1 win at Scunthorpe United moved them eight points above the League Two relegation zone.

And ahead of their first trip to play Rovers since 2011, U's interim boss Brown says his side are performing well.

Brown said: “We’re on a good little run and we’ve picked up some real good points.

“That’s eight in the last four and that’s two points a game, so the lads have got to take a lot of encouragement from that and take it into the Bristol Rovers match.

“If you look at the performance against Leyton Orient where we were denied the win in the 93rd minute, it’s always a tough one to take especially when you do create as many chances as we did on the night and you don’t pick up the three points, which at the moment is the be all and end all.

“Port Vale was a totally different performance; it was disciplined and it was well structured and we get one from a set play thankfully from Dallo (Tom Dallison).

“Scunthorpe was a totally different game again so I’m sure with the game at Bristol Rovers, there’ll be a totally different dimension again."

Gazette:

Colchester will check on the fitness of duo Tom Dallison and Emyr Huws (pictured above) ahead of tonight's game.

The duo missed the U's win at Scunthorpe and were replaced in the starting line-up by skipper Tommy Smith and Cole Skuse.

Brown says they need to 'look after' Dallison and Huws, ahead of their final ten games of the season.

“They’ve both struggled to get fit, to be fair," said Brown.

“It was a case of us feeling that we couldn’t risk them.

“There’s still ten games left of the season and everyone’s going to have a massive part to play.

“But we need people fit and we need people ready and able to go and do a job, when they’re called upon.

“We need to look after them and get them fit but there’s other people in the squad who can come in and do a job and that’s what having a good squad is all about.

“People question older players when it’s Tuesday-Saturday, Tuesday-Saturday.

“But they’ve all been immense and not just the older players – it takes its toll on the younger players, too.

“Bringing people like (Cole) Skuse and Smudge (Tommy Smith) in does give you a really good chance of managing games of football and grinding out results."

Midfielder Alan Judge is also expected to be assessed, ahead of tonight's game.