COLCHESTER United host Tranmere Rovers in League Two, this afternoon (kick-off 3pm).

New U's head coach Ben Garner is looking to chalk up his first win as boss, after last weekend's spirited comeback at league leaders Leyton Orient.

From likely line-ups to key men and the referee, all you need to know can be found below ahead of the game at the JobServe Community Stadium.

U's team news

Colchester welcome back left wing-back Connor Wood for today's game.

He was unavailable to play against his parent club Orient last weekend but is back and available for selection.

Gazette:

Midfielder Arthur Read is also set to be named in the U's squad after missing the last two games with a shin injury.

But dtriker Kwesi Appiah (ankle) is definitely out and skipper Tommy Smith is on international duty with New Zealand.

Tom Dallison, Cole Skuse, Alan Judge and Sam Hornby all remain sidelined.

Colchester boss Ben Garner admits he has some tough decisions to make.

He said: “Arthur Read has trained from Tuesday.

“He’s good and he’ll come back into the squad which is a bonus and helpful for us.

“We want that competition and there's tough decisions going into the weekend, with Connor being unavailable last weekend.

“Al-Amin did well and we have a decision to make there in terms of what we do, down our left side.

Gazette:

“Last week was good – I thought Hops and Samson were very good as a pair, particularly defensively for us with their work rate and their pressing.

“I thought they were really great at that and unsettled Leyton Orient and took the game to them and then John and Freddie coming on had a really good impact, in the closing stages.

“We’ve got different ways of playing, we’ve got different systems we can use and different personnel.

“There’s been tough decisions; they’ve all trained really well and there’s been a real brightness and intensity and quality is going up and improving."

Key battle

Tom Hopper has been a regular starter for Colchester since joining them from Lincoln City in January and is looking for his first home goal for the U's today.

He is set to come up against experienced defender Jordan Turnbull, who has been a near ever-present for Tranmere so far, this season.

Gazette:

Last meeting

Colchester lost 2-0 at Tranmere when the two teams met at Prenton Park, last August.

Josh Hawkes gave the hosts a fourth-minute lead, before Jake Burton sealed the points for Tranmere late on.

Referee

Carl Boyeson is the man in the middle for today's game.

The East Yorkshire official has presided over 19 games so far this season, showing 73 yellow cards and two reds, in that time.

Opposition view

Tranmere caretaker boss Ian Dawes told the Tranmere website:

“We’ve given everything, and we’ve just got to prepare the best that we can.

“The team have proven that they can perform and get results, and that’s against the top sides, but we have to break teams down, so we have to look at that, we’ve had our inconsistencies so we have got to address that going into Saturday. 

Gazette:

“We need to try to lift the players, the fans and the Club and try to get the crucial information into them that we need and what we expect from them in and out of possession on Saturday, so we’ve tried to do that this week. 

“We’re at that point in the season where we are in the league, so it’s just trying to go and win the next game, and don’t ever move past that, we’ve just got to look at Saturday moving forward."

Likely line-ups

U's: O'Hara, Hall, Chambers, Kelleher, Tchamadeu, Ashley, Read, Wood, Chilvers, Jay, Hopper.

Tranmere: Murphy, Turnbull, Dacres-Cogley, Davies, Bristow, Hawkes, Merrie, Saunders, Hendry, Hughes, Mumbongo.

Gazette:

Odds

Colchester are viewed at 13/10 to claim a crucial win tomorrow, according to Paddy Power. The draw is 2/1 while a Tranmere victory is seen at 9/4.

Today's League Two fixtures (3pm): Barrow v AFC Wimbledon, Colchester United v Tranmere Rovers, Crawley Town v Rochdale, Doncaster Rovers v Northampton Town, Gillingham v Carlisle United, Grimsby Town v Walsall, Hartlepool United v Leyton Orient, Mansfield Town v Sutton United, Stevenage v Salford City, Swindon Town v Stockport County.