DANNY Cowley says his Colchester United squad are in a ‘good place’ ahead of their game at Morecambe this afternoon.

The U’s return to action for the first time in a fortnight aiming to register their first win under Danny and Nicky Cowley following their appointment as the club’s new management team, earlier this month.

Colchester could hand a debut to new signings Harry Anderson, Alistair Smith and Riley Harbottle, who all arrived on loan this week and U’s boss Cowley is looking forward to the game.

Cowley said: “I’m really excited about the game on Saturday.

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“I think we’re in a good place as a group.

“We’ve trained really well; we’ve front-loaded our work this week and we’ve been able to do some really good work.

“Friday is going to be a train and a travel, so we wanted to get a lot of our work done with the long journey to Morecambe with less time on the training ground.

“We’re in a good place; we’re growing – we’re far from the finished article but we’re definitely making steps in the right direction.”

Colchester have had an enforced fixture break, after their game at Salford City was called off last week due to a frozen pitch.

“We never like missing football matches – it’s the same for us when you don’t have the match at the weekend,” continued Cowley.

Gazette:

“We’re never pleased when that happens and I think ultimately, we didn’t have much control over it of course and neither did Salford.

“You have to make sure you adapt your plans and make the very most of the time you have and all of a sudden, we have a nine-day lead into a game.

“We’ve had a good week, this week and we’re a team that’s getting better and a team that’s improving.”

Colchester face a Morecambe side who sit 13th in the League Two table and are targeting a play-off push, in the second half of the season.

The Shrimps won 2-1 at MK Dons last weekend and U’s boss Cowley is expecting a difficult challenge.

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He said: “Morecambe had an outstanding win against MK Dons.

“It’s probably one of the toughest places to go and they had a really gutsy, resilient determined effort.

“Obviously they’ve had a change of manager and they’re obviously a few weeks in front of us, in that respect.

“I think they’ve got a really good squad and some really, really good players.

“I like the way that they’re adaptable and they can build their play, play through the thirds and play through teams.

Gazette:

“They also carry real threat on the counter attack and they’re a really well coached team with some really good players, so we understand the challenge but we’re a team that’s on the up, improving and getting better by the day and we’re looking to attack the game on Saturday.”

Colchester will check on the fitness of left-back Ellis Iandolo, who missed their 1-1 draw with Bradford City a fortnight ago due to a quad injury.

Cowley added: “We’re really hopeful with El that he can make it.

“He’s been back on the grass and we won’t make the call until after training on Friday.

“But we’re hopeful that he’ll be with us.”