Midfielder Thomas Pinault will make his first start of the season for Colchester United against relegation-threatened Cambridge at the Abbey Stadium tonight (Tuesday).
And while the French teenager, scorer of his only League goal as a substitute in the 3-0 win at Luton in December, enjoys a rare outing, player of the year Mick Stockwell will continue his ever-present record.
Pinault, a free transfer from French club Cannes and one of the first signings made by former U's boss Mick Wadsworth just over two years ago, has made only one previous League start, at Wrexham last April.
U's boss Steve Whitton promised the 19-year-old youngster he would get his chance once the club's Second Division status was safely secured - a fact confirmed by Bristol Rovers 3-0 defeat by Port Vale last night.
Whitton said today (Tuesday): "Thomas will play tonight. I promised I would give him a chance and that chance comes tonight.
"All the pressures are lifted now so it will be a good chance for the lad to show us what he is made of."
Pinault, who has made just two substititute appearances this season, will take the place of Kem Izzet who picked up an injury in the 2-1 win over Reading on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the U's boss confirmed that Stockwell, the only ever-present in his team this season will also play tonight.
"He said: "If Mick wants to play in all three of our remaining matches he can. It's entirely up to him. I want to win all those matches to finish as high in the League as we can.
"It would be great to top the 60-point mark because I feel that would be a true reflection of our current squad and the improvement we have made this season. We also owe it to our fans to go and win every game."
Aston Villa triallist Neil Tarrant and Matt Hearn netted for the U's reserves in yesterday's 2-2 Combination draw with Northampton.
U's chief executive Marie Partner has explained why only 5,010 fans turned up to what was billed as a sell-out crowd for Saturday's big game against Reading.
She said: "Quite simply a lot of people who bought season tickets didn't turn up and it was surprisingly noticeable that the Bar Side terrace attendance was 20 per cent down.
"We are sorry if people were inconvienenced by our request for them to arrive at the ground early.
"But in anticipation of a big crowd and the fact the police didn't want the Colchester supporters arriving at the ground at the same time as the Reading fans, we asked them to arrive early for safety reasons."
Moment of joy - Thomas Pinault, right, celebrates his only League goal against Luton last December with U's teammate Gavin Johnson
Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
Share