STEVE Ball wants to see his Colchester United side play with confidence when they host Tranmere Rovers this afternoon.

The U’s are aiming to get back to winning ways at the JobServe Community Stadium, after a five-match sequence without a win in League Two.

Colchester halted a three-game losing run with a goal-less draw against Cheltenham Town on Tuesday night – and boss Ball believes victory today will be a positive way to kick off 2021.

Ball said: “Confidence is so important and we need that individually and as a team with our movement ahead of the ball, the way we play, our first pass security, that link with the ball sticking up top and being able to play – that all links to good possession.

“There are many reasons for that and teams are stopping us.

“We changed tact a little bit against Cheltenham the other night with regards to playing out from the back and we might have to look to do that again on Saturday – we’ll see.

“I just want us to secure the ball in the right area of the pitch and get it into the top third with better quality.

“I hope there’s a bit of understanding in that Chelsea lost three on the bounce recently and in our division, Cheltenham haven’t won in six games now.

“It happens and when you get a league that’s so consistently levelling where a lot of teams are very similar with squads and budgets and everything, it links to teams beating teams on their day.

“We lost by the odd goal against Morecambe and the odd goal against Cambridge and they were games that could have gone either way.

“A good win on Saturday – and a good bit of positivity around the place – will hopefully be the answer.”

Colchester lie a point above Tranmere, who have won only one of their last six matches.

But Keith Hill’s side claimed a hard-earned point in a 1-1 draw at Barrow, in their last match.

“It’ll be a tough game – Tranmere are a good side,” added Ball.

“They play a diamond and pass it around really well but we’re hoping that we can get back to our style of football which is having a bit more possession with quality and execution in the final third areas.

“They’re one of the more experienced sides and at the minute, we seem to be playing against those kind of sides like Cheltenham, who have an abundance of appearances in their team.

“It’s the same with Tranmere and what you get with that is understanding of what it takes in this division, good decisions during a game and at times, we have to make better decisions to affect them more physically.

“Tranmere are a big club at this level with a lot of history and I really like the way they play.

“Their ambition this year will be to get out of the league.

“They’ve brought in a manager with that experience at this level and above.

“They’re a team that come to us in mixed form but I think they beat Bolton the other week 3-0 away from home and their away form is very good so it’s a team that will be coming here with confidence.

“But we feel as though we’ve turned the corner a little bit the other night with a good point, against a really good team.”