Colchester boss Joe Dunne spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One clash against Carlisle at the Weston Homes Community Stadium this evening, Dunne saying the U's will not be taking the Blues lightly:
“We have to focus on what we need to do tonight, we have been in a similar situation to Carlisle so we know the emotions that go with that. So, we have got to keep our professional heads on and we play the team that travels. It will probably be the first time Carlisle can get one of their strongest sides out so by no means will we be taking this game lightly. We will be at it because they have got too much quality in their squad for us to take the foot off the gas.
“We followed Carlisle closely in pre-season because it was one of our first five fixtures and to lose Lee Miller on day one, and they have missed a penalty also in one of their recent games that keeps it close. They have had injuries to key and experienced players that when you have them in your squad it doesn’t really help. So, it will be a different team that travels down and we just have to be ready for absolutely every eventuality.
“I think in their recent history they have been close to promotion, when John Ward was manager he took them to the play-offs. Then the following season didn’t start so well and Greg Abbott took over. I think we are both established League One clubs, I think what you have to do is understand and manage expectation. Greg has been one of the longest serving managers I think with one club at the moment.
“I am an admirer of team that is isolated where it is, it is very difficult I suppose to attract players but overall in the last few years they have competed very well in our league, Let’s not forget there is only three games gone and there is a long way to go. But, it was only four games ago that we played them, we came out of that well and now we meet again in slightly different circumstances at the moment."
“We are all fully focused, the players have trained hard this week and we need to push ourselves again tonight. It is a different kind of pressure playing them now, before it was a win to stay up, now it is a win to go top, it is amazing how football turns around so quickly. To think about going top would be foolish although it is a fact, we play one game at a time, every game on its own merits, so we need to be fully focused, and if we are not fully focused then we will get beat.
“We can’t get too carried away, I am grounded and if I am grounded then the players are going to be too. We have gone through too much last season to get carried away at the moment. Yes, it is a good start to the season and we will take that, but I just feel that we have gone through so much that we can’t be arrogant and obnoxious to other people’s situations that we know and we have experienced.
“We can’t be big-headed or think we have arrived, we are not good enough to think like that. We must demand off each other, as the players are doing at the moment, and train every day with a high intensity and take every game with a high intensity. The good thing is that with the squad we have got we know that. What has got us where we are at the moment is a terrific work-ethic and quality as well, but before the quality the work-ethic has to be there.
“Nothing is perfect, you must always look to improve, I think there are areas to improve everywhere on and off the pitch. So, it would be wrong of us not to try to make people better by learning from things we could have done better in a game. We reinforce the positives, like we did at the end of last season, and we keep analysing to a minimum with the players, we give them specifics but we don’t saturate them with it.”