Greg Abbott ahead of the Colchester game
United manager Greg Abbott spoke to us about the long journey to Colchester at the weekend.
He said: “We’re just going into our final training session and I think the lads are used to the way we break these trips up now.
“We have to give a big thank you to Leeds United this time round, for allowing us to use their facility, and they have been absolutely fantastic with us. It’s something we appreciate because we need to get this part of the weekend as right as we can. Coming to a place like this allows us to do our final bits and pieces on a really good surface and we certainly can’t have any excuses in terms of how we prepared for this weekend.
“Tuesday night was important for us because it would have been much more difficult for us if we had lost that game on the back of the Notts County result. As it is we worked very hard and earned a good point and we go into the Colchester match in a decent frame of mind.
“I can almost guarantee this will be a different type of game to the one we saw on Tuesday. Joe [Dunne] has taken over and he has got some very good players at his disposal. He’s signed some young, energetic lads to add to the mix and I know him of old – he will want his team to play football and to bring the game to us.
“It’s little secret that we tried to bring Sanchez Watt up to Carlisle. He had his own reasons ... personal reasons ... for not finalising things in the end and that was after three or four very good conversations with him. We respect that though and he has already shown down at Colchester that he is going to be one to watch.
“It’s obviously a blow for us that Paul [Thirlwell] picked up his yellow card on Tuesday because he will be a massive miss for us. Not just in terms of how he can play but also with his presence and what he brings to the team on the pitch.
“It’s frustrating because he picked up a booking for celebrating a goal. That’s something I find difficult to come to terms with because it’s the name of the game at the end of the day. A player breaks Rory Loy’s leg and gets a yellow card and Paul celebrates a goal and gets the same. The FA really do have to look at that in my opinion.
“We have players who are chomping at the bit to come in though and we have to go down there to get a result. We don’t want to keep winning one and then losing one – if we want our season to go forward we know we have to be much more consistent.
“With the new manager in place, and with two teams who like to get the ball down and have a go, I think this could be a good game to watch.”
United Player subscribers can see a video interview with Greg Abbott later today. To find out more about United Player, and to subscribe, click HERE.
