Walsall vs Colchester United: The inside track

How would you assess Colchester's start to the season?

It took a little while to get going in terms of results but now they seem to be gelling as a team a bit better.

New signings are settling in well, they've got a couple of wins under their belt in the league and had a really good 3-0 win last Saturday at home against Tranmere.

They're unbeaten in five in all competitions so it's kind of looking like their season is up and running now after a slightly shaky start.

How important is it to build on their clean sheet against Tranmere?

In attack, they've scored six goals in their last two games and it's looking good. They've got Lyle Taylor fit now and he wasn't fit when he first came to the club or initially in the first few weeks because of injuries.

He was unable to take part in all of the pre-season so therefore missed the first few games. But now he's back and scoring goals as well, which is why they signed him.

Three goals in the last two for him and he's linking up well with Samson Tovide. Up front they've been really effective, scoring goals and looking like they're very dangerous.

It's just defensively, they need to keep doing well in that area in addition to scoring goals but they kept a clean sheet against Tranmere which was good.

That was important for them. Danny Cowley talks about defending from the front. It's not just the goalkeeper and defenders that need to do it, it's the whole team.

It was a great example of that last Saturday because Taylor and Tovide put in such a shift for the team. They contributed in terms of goals and assists but they also worked so hard to keep a clean sheet and keep the opposition at bay.

Colchester are still searching for their first away victory. So the next challenge is for them to get off the mark on the road?

Absolutely. They were so close to doing that in the last away game. They were 3-1 up at Morecambe, who were down to 10 men just before half-time.

Colchester were seemingly cruising to three points there and looked like they might even score four or five. But then Morecambe got a goal back from a penalty that was a bit soft and equalised in stoppage time.

It was a real choker for Colchester because it looked like they were going to go on and win the game. In the end, they had to settle for a point and that was a moment really in the early season where the players and manager came together and said this can't happen again.

They needed to really eradicate those errors that caused these issues and the last two performances since then have been really good.

Two wins out of two so that could possibly be a turning point for them.

What is the state of play on the injury front?

As far as I know, there's not too many injuries to reporter. Striker Tom Hopper missed the game against Tranmere with a slight groin problem but the diagnosis was such that he may well be fit again for the weekend and back in the squad.

Harry Anderson, the winger, has also got a minor injury that forced him to be substituted in the EFL Trophy game against MK Dons. He wasn't involved against Tranmere but there's a possibility he could be back.

There's a young midfielder called Milton Oni, who is out for the season unfortunately. He's suffered an ACL which is really sad because he started the season ever so well.

Aside from that, Colchester should have a near full strength team to choose from and it's likely to be difficult to change the starting line-up given the performance against Tranmere.