Confidence can mean so much in football.

When you have it, you feel like you can beat any team standing in your way.

Without it, the smallest setback can seem like a disaster.

Take Colchester United.

Would they have won 2-0 at Leyton Orient with only ten men had they not halted their losing run and kept a first clean sheet of the season at Walsall seven days earlier? Probably not.

But the collective spirit they showed in battling the odds to win at Brisbane Road, despite having a numerical disadvantage for more than half the game, was there for all to see.

And the bullish manner in which Sanchez Watt put Colchester ahead further enhanced their assurance as a team that they were capable of success.

That is where belief comes from, as Tony Humes remarked after presiding over his first win as U’s manager.

Four points from six and successive clean sheets from back-to-back away games certainly represent a successful start to his reign as boss, especially given the fact that he inherited a side who had lost four league games in a row, despite performing well.

Confidence cannot be coached – there are no FA manuals that reveal the secret of keeping players positive.

But the "new manager effect" - and with it a different approach - can often serve as a boost to a team struggling for results, especially if players see the reward of that on the pitch.

Humes deserves much credit for sticking to his principles and remaining positive in the face of adversity, after seeing his side go down to ten men.

Other managers would have shut up shop and aimed for damage limitation in such a situation and he was rewarded for his bravery and positivity.

A note of caution – Joe Dunne won five of his first six matches upon taking charge of the U’s, immediately stamping his own philosophy on his side.

But Colchester then managed only one win in their next 14 games, proving that losing can be as damaging to confidence as winning can be beneficial.

These are still early days in Humes’ reign but the signs are promising.

And after the U’s hugely encouraging performance and result at Leyton Orient it is clear that in this case, confidence can come from within.