BEN Garner says he ‘completely understands’ Alex Newby’s desire to play regular football, following his loan move away from Colchester United.

The 27-year-old has moved to National League side Altrincham on loan until January, having found first-team opportunities hard to come by at the U’s, this season.

Newby scored three minutes into his debut for the Robins last weekend, in their 6-1 thrashing of Ebbsfleet United.

The former Rochdale midfielder also played 90 minutes for his new club in their 1-0 triumph at Maidenhead United, on Tuesday night.

 

Newby has made three appearances and one league start for Colchester this season and boss Garner admits it was a sensible move for the player.

Garner said: “Newbs was in a position where he wasn’t going to get regular football here.

“He wanted to go and play, which I completely understand.

“He’s got an opportunity to go to Altrincham and get good game time and we’ll monitor him there and assess things, going into January.”

Gazette: Alex Newby

Garner is not anticipating any further loan departures from Colchester, prior to the January transfer window.

The U’s have a number of players sidelined through injury including Ellis Iandolo, Tom Dallison and Nico Lawrence but are expecting a number of them to return next month.

“We’re not actively looking for any more players to go out on loan,” added Garner.

“We’ve not got a huge squad with the injuries at the moment but once we get the injured players back, I think we’ll be in a good place.

Gazette:

“I think we should get five (of the injured players) out of six back in October, which is going to be huge for us.

“Considering the players we’ve got missing, that’s what makes the last three or four weeks even more pleasing.

“We’re five or six players down and we’re still producing that level of performance.

“I think that bodes well for getting these players back into the fold and puts the s quad in a much better place.”

Colchester are next in action on Saturday when they host league leaders Notts County, at the JobServe Community Stadium.