EDDIE Keen linked up with Colchester United’s first-team coaching team for their game at Harrogate Town at the weekend.

Keen, who is the son of Kevin Keen who managed the U’s in the 2015-16 season, linked up with Danny and Nicky Cowley and Lorenzo Dolcetti for the League Two game at the EnviroVent Stadium.

Keen is Colchester’s Lead Phase Coach for their under-15 and under-16 teams and his inclusion at the weekend was part of a plan by the Cowleys to involve their various academy coaches in first-team duties, both prior to matches and on game day.

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He follows in the footsteps of fellow U’s academy coaches such as Paul Konchesky and Elliott Ward who have also stepped up to first-team duties for the club, since the Cowleys’ arrival last month.

Speaking to the Gazette last month, Cowley said: “(The idea) is to use different academy staff so every day for training, we have a different member of the academy staff who joins us and supports us in the players’ training and the same on matchday.

“The idea is that the person that’s working with us on matchday is with us on the Friday and will help prepare the team, support the team on a matchday and then actually review the game, at the beginning of the following week.

Gazette:

“It’s the whole process and I think that this can be really good for their development."

Keen has been at Colchester since last November.

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He previously coached within the Brentford academy and was first-team coach at National League side Maidenhead United alongside former West Ham United favourite and ex-Braintree Town boss, Alan Devonshire.

Keen also previously coached in the United States and worked in the American College system, having studied at Hastings College, in Nebraska and also worked with Atletico de Kolkata (ATK), a professional soccer team in West Bengal, India.