Michael Flynn believes Colchester United are one of the best teams in League Two on their day and has therefore warned his Newport County AFC players that they will have to be at their best to continue their imperious start to the campaign.
John McGreal’s side have made a consistent start to the 2019/20 season in the sense they have won five, lost five and drawn five league matches so far, having more success in the cup competitions where they contest an all League Two clash on Tuesday night for a place in the last eight of the Carabao Cup.
Flynn doesn’t believe the U’s will be distracted on Saturday ahead of such a monumental game three days later, instead insisting they will have to be prepared for the toughest Colchester test possible.
He affirmed: “They’ve had one or two poor results but they’re a dangerous team on their day.
“They’ve had a good cup run, got a big game on Tuesday against Crawley Town where one of them will make it to the Quarter Finals [of the Carabao Cup].
“You look at it, every one of those players who play Saturday will want to keep their shirt for Tuesday. They’ll be trying their hardest, what Colchester do I can’t affect.
“We’ve looked at it, I’ve had three separate reports on them, so we’ve done our due diligence and homework on them. We’ll go there prepared and hopefully get the right result.”
Colchester hasn’t exactly been the happiest of hunting grounds for the Exiles at either their current ground The Jobserve Community Stadium or their former home Layer Road.
The Exiles have a miserable recent record having not won away there since 1972, not scoring a goal at either stadium since 1973 and only amassing two points from the last seven outings in Essex.
Flynn discussed the difficulties of going to Colchester post-match on Tuesday night and he again reaffirmed his feelings when focusing specifically on tomorrow’s contest.
He continued: “It’s going to be a tough place to go. On their day, Colchester are one of the best teams in the league.
“They’ve got Frank Nouble, Courtney Senior, Luke Norris, Ryan Jackson coming from the right. You could go through them all, they’re a very good team on their day.
“We know about their threats but we’re concentrating on ourselves.
“We go there in a good position; we’ve got a lot of points at the minute and we want to continue what we’ve been doing so far this season.
“That’s what any team should be about [being hard to beat]. If somebody comes and takes the points off you, they have to earn and deserve them. If someone does that to us, fair play, we move on.
“One thing I’ve got with this group of players is they have a fantastic work ethic, a great togetherness, and they’re good footballers.”