Former striker Clinton Morrison has tipped Colchester United to be in the mix for a League Two play-off place this season. Morrison highlighted the open nature of the division as a key reason for his belief.
Morrison, who made appearances for the club between 2011 and 2014, pointed to the team's current position as a platform. Colchester sit 13th in the table with 8 points from their opening six matches, a run that includes two wins, two draws and two defeats. Their recent form reads DLLWW, with a 1-1 home draw against Crewe Alexandra last time out.
Morrison described the fourth tier as unpredictable. He said the division is wide-open this season. There's no real standout team running away with it, and that gives a lot of clubs a chance.
He specifically backed his old side to capitalise on that opportunity. He fancies Colchester to be up there challenging for the play-offs. They've had a decent start, they're in and around it, and he thinks they can kick on.
The pundit's comments come as Colchester prepare for a tough test against high-flying Cheltenham Town this weekend. The Robins currently occupy fourth place, just four points ahead of Colchester in the standings.
The U's campaign began with a 2-2 draw away at Accrington Stanley. They then secured back-to-back home victories, beating Oldham Athletic 2-1 and Rochdale 1-0. A difficult spell followed with defeats at Bristol Rovers (2-0) and Swindon Town (3-1), before the stalemate with Crewe.
In that Crewe match, Harry Anderson opened the scoring in the 27th minute before a late Joshua Stephenson equaliser. Against Swindon, K. Kouassi had briefly levelled the scores early in the second half before a Aaron Drinan hat-trick secured the points for the hosts. The team has scored 7 goals and conceded 9 so far.
With the division appearing tightly packed, Morrison's assessment suggests every point will be valuable. The gap to leaders Barnet is just four points, underlining how quickly a couple of positive results can change a team's outlook.
Colchester's next opportunity to climb the table comes at the JobServe Community Stadium on Saturday against Cheltenham. A positive result would provide a significant boost ahead of the autumn fixtures.
This story first appeared at Yahoo
