Gillingham will need to find a way past a stubborn defence if they are to take anything from their Boxing Day trip into Essex.
Colchester are creeping up the table with a run of form built on a sound defence. The U’s have gone six games without conceding in all competitions. They’re also seven unbeaten in League 2.
Gills boss Mark Bonner is looking forward to the challenge.
“You’re talking about 10 hours since they last conceded a goal (including injury time) – so that in itself tells its own story.
“Danny and Nicky (Cowley’s) teams have always been really hard to beat, really hard to play against.
“It’s a tight pitch there, smaller this year than last. I think it’ll be a game for real patience and real individual quality and combinations to try and hurt them and to open them up.
“They have some really dangerous forward players in (Samson) Tovide and Lyle Taylor, good experience and craft in there. A bit of pace and power with Owura Edwards on one side, who’s very tricky and then players like Ted Bishop and Jack Payne who can unlock a really clever pass. I think they’re a nicely balanced side.
“They’ve recruited well over the summer and have got a good blend of youth and experience. Left footers, right footers, dribblers and passers, soldiers and artists. They’ve got a little bit of everything in the team. A very good restart and set-play team.
“A lot of their games have been fairly low scoring, so we have to try and make sure that we are defensively at our best to limit them because they’ve got some good threats.
“We’ll have to work really hard and play really well to make sure we’re a creative team against them. They give very little up in the games that they’ve played, not just the ones that they’ve kept the clean sheets in, but throughout the season.
“They’re on a good run of form themselves. More draws than they’d probably hoped for. They’d like a few more wins than that. But at the same time, I think it’ll be a really tough test for us.
“It’s one that we’ve got to go into off the back of a strong performance and try and continue now at building a run of results ourselves.”
League 2 table
“They defend their box really well. I think we’ll have to be patient, but patient doesn’t mean slow. We’ll need to be relentless and change the tempo well when we get in the attacking third of the pitch.
“We’ll need individual qualities to try and help us. I thought in the game last week we had some really good approach play.”
The Gills drew 2-2 with Cheltenham Town last time out, having won the previous two. Bonner will be hoping to keep on extending that unbeaten run.
“We got to some threatening areas well,” he continued. “We created one or two really good moments and then there were times where we missed the extra pass.
“We didn’t find a change of tempo in our attacking play. We crossed too early when there was extra pass in the move, things like that. Trying to get the balance between patience and tempo and individual players bringing the game to life will be massive for us.
“We’ll need the top players to have really good games. Behind that we’ll need to be really solid and strong to make sure that we don’t get hurt by what they have. I think it’ll be a well-balanced game.
“I think it’s the type of game that physically, mentally, intensity-wise you’ve got to be in the right frame of mind because that’s how they play. We need to find the level that we have done in the last few weeks.”
