John McGreal has hinted he could make a tactical switch for Colchester United’s vital game at Swindon Town tonight.

The U’s head coach will be forced to change a winning team for the League Two clash at the County Ground, after Ryan Inniss was ruled out with a shoulder injury.

McGreal is weighing up whether to stick with the 3-4-1-2 formation that has proved so productive for his side over recent weeks, or switch to four at the back.

He is playing his cards close to his chest ahead of the game – but is confident that he has the resources to pick a team and formation capable of claiming a victory which would lift Colchester up to fifth in the table.

McGreal said: “The boys have been playing particularly well so I’m sure whoever we take to put in there to play will do a good job.

“Confidence is really high and it’s been quite a settled team, over the last few games.

“Now we know that we have to change it – do we adapt the system?

“We’ll have to wait and see.

“It’s about game time for some players and we’ve had quite a settled squad.

“We adapted it to a four last Saturday so we can do that and we’ve got the personnel to do that.

“We’ve also got Kyel (Reid) who can come on and be a winger, as well.

“We’ve got the different types of personnel to change it.”

Colchester know a win at Swindon will lift them to within two points of the automatic promotion places, approaching the midway point in the campaign.

But McGreal says they are just taking it game by game, as they attempt to continue their encouraging form heading into the Christmas period.

McGreal said: “We’re not really looking at the table, at the moment.
“We’ve got our own targets that we want to hit and as well as the opposition are doing, we just try and look after ourselves.

“We’ve got a tough game on Friday and we have to try and look after that one first.

“We’ve been in good form and we want to try and continue that good form and it’s about what we do."

Swindon are only above Colchester on goal difference in the table and have lost their last four games, in all competitions.

But boss McGreal still believes it will be a difficult task for his side tonight, against one of the sides relegated from League One last season.

McGreal added: “Swindon are promotion rivals and they’ve been in that top seven all season.

“David Flitcroft has done a terrific job there and it’s a case of managing expectations, I think.

“They got relegated from League One and want to bounce back, which is similar to what we’re trying to do.

“It’s a Friday night game under the lights and I’m sure they’re trying to do it to get a few fans in, before the Christmas period.

“They’ve got some good players and some good experience throughout and a good steady squad.

“But we’re just trying to hatch a plan to try and get what we can out of the game, on Friday.

“We’ll give a ton of respect to the opposition and Swindon have been doing really well.

“We’ve had them watched quite a few times and we’ve watched them ourselves.

“They’ve had a blip lately but it’s going to be a tough game.”