DANNY Cowley has revealed he had an hour-long conversation with goalkeeper Owen Goodman after making the decision to bring Sam Hornby back into Colchester United's starting line-up.

Goodman is one of the U’s highest appearance makers this season, having played 40 league and cup games but was dropped following a costly error in the defeat to Stockport County, last week.

The promising 20-year-old has impressed for Colchester in his season-long loan from Premier League side Crystal Palace and boss Cowley believes Goodman’s maiden campaign in regular senior football as a professional can be the making of him.

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Cowley said: “For us, in those moments it’s always to have clear communication.

“That’s why we try to do.

“I always tell the players, see this is just what I see, this is just my opinion.

“If I’m wrong, I try to tell them before they tell me!

“I try to have that difficult conversation as quickly as I can – one, because I don’t want it on my conscience too long and two, more importantly, you know that the person taking the information probably wants to know as soon as they can.

“I sat down with Owen on the Wednesday after the game against Stockport and we had a good hour conversation.

Gazette:

“We spoke about him and his career, we spoke about where he was this time last year and this year and the progress that he’s made and the brilliant experiences that he’s had.

“If he goes on to do what we hope he does and plays 500 games in his career at the top level, then he’ll have the opportunity to write an autobiography and maybe his Colchester chapter will be called ‘The Making of Me’.

“For Owen, that is what I’ve seen this season being.

“I think it’s been a brilliant period in his development.

“Crystal Palace see how hard Yilmaz (Aksoy) our goalkeeper coach in particular and the whole club has worked to support Owen and he’s now 40 games into his professional career, which is brilliant.

“We still have three games to go so maybe he plays more; we’ll have to wait and see.”

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Hornby is set to start for the third successive match at Notts County this afternoon and Cowley says he has been a big supportive influence for Goodman.

“I think Sam’s a brilliant professional,” said Cowley.

“He’s somebody who conducts himself in a really, really good way, every single day.

“The football Gods tend to look after you when you’re really honest with your profession and the game.

“Always trains with intensity, always trains with enthusiasm and I think he’s been a really support mechanism for Owen and has really helped him.

Gazette:

“It’s nice now to see Owen supporting him.

“Owen was the first to congratulate Sam on the pitch after the game when he kept that clean sheet and it’s always the collective effort.

“The goalkeeper is a unique position and only if you’ve lived being a goalkeeper do you really know the challenges of that role.

“I think because the goalkeepers know that, they tend to have quite a unique relationship with each other and support one another and that clean sheet is never a one-man job – it was a whole team, a whole squad effort.”