MATTY Etherington admits Colchester United's upcoming fixture break has come at the right time for them after three straight league defeats.

The U's are now without a League Two game until December 9 when Etherington faces his former side Crawley Town, at the JobServe Community Stadium.

Their next competitive game will be against West Ham United under-21s in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy at the JobServe Community Stadium, next Tuesday night.

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Colchester have just completed a gruelling run of seven games in the space of 24 days in November, culminating in their 3-1 defeat at Doncaster Rovers.

And having had little time on the training ground with his players since taking over from Ben Garner, head coach Etherington says the period can prove beneficial.

Etherington said: “I think the gap in fixtures is really timely, if I’m being honest.

“There’s some tired legs out there and we’ve had a lot of games recently.

“I asked some of them to go again against Peterborough in the EFL Trophy so they need a little rest and hopefully, they’ll get back to their usual selves in the next games.

Gazette:

“There are ten days now until our next league game and we’ve obviously got the game (against West Ham United under-21s) on Tuesday night which we want to progress in and it’ll be a chance to utilise the squad as well.

“They need a day or two off and then we’ll get to work.

“It’s been relentless, I’ve got to be honest with you in terms of how many games we’ve had recently, Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday.

“It’ll be a chance to get some bits of work into them.”

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Colchester have conceded nine goals in their last three league matches.

At the other end, they are creating plenty of chances in games but have been unable to make the most of the majority of them, with just two goals to show for their efforts in that time.

Etherington added: “We’re still creating chances but the difference is that we were taking them when I first came in and we’re not doing that, at the minute.

“That’s football; it’s part of it."