COLCHESTER United head coach Steve Ball has challenged his players to chalk up back-to-back wins in League Two this weekend – and maintain their impressive start to the season.

The U’s make the 650-mile round trip to EFL new boys Barrow looking to follow up their fine 2-0 win over against Bolton Wanderers, last weekend.

Boss Ball has been impressing on his players this week the importance of them following up that result with another win on Saturday.

Colchester managed successive league wins on only three occasions on their run to the play-offs last season – and boss Ball wants them to stay focused and strive for another three points.

Ball said: “We’re very much trying to get the group into the thought process of focusing on the next game.

“When we won big games last year, like against Plymouth, I recall us then losing to Grimsby 3-2 at home; I think we beat Swindon at home and then we lost at Cambridge.

“So we’re just trying to ram that home a little bit that this next game is huge for us, to go to Barrow and get a win.

“I had a good chat with (Barrow boss) Ian Evatt after the game last week, who’s obviously got a big history (at Barrow).

“I’ve watched Barrow several times this week and I actually watched them quite a bit, last year.

“They’re a really good footballing side – they’ve come out of the Conference which is a really hard league playing football, which is credit to them.

“They’ve carried that on and they’ve been unlucky in the first couple of games, in so far as not getting wins.

“They should have beaten Stevenage, they should have got a point at least against Newport, they’ve gone to Derby and drawn 0-0 and drew 0-0 with Blackpool.

“So they’ll be a tough nut to crack.

“I say it every week in this league – there are no easy games and they’ll be a tough team, on Saturday.

“I think the benefit of our pre-season games is coming out now.

“We had two really tough games and got four points out of six, so we’re in a good place.

“Seeing this group every day, I know where they can go and it’s a really, really positive start."