LYLE Taylor insists Colchester United’s players are striving to bring success to the club’s fans and reward them for their support ‘through thick and thin’.
The U’s faithful have experienced a barren time over recent years, with celebration in limited supply after four successive seasons of struggle in the fourth tier.
However, Danny Cowley’s arrival in January has reinvigorated the club’s fanbase, with crowds on the up at the JobServe Community Stadium so far, this season.
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Striker Taylor, who returns to the U's later this week following international duty with Montserrat, says Colchester’s squad are desperate to give their supporters something to cheer about.
Taylor, who won promotion with AFC Wimbledon, Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forest earlier in his career, said: “Our fans support us through thick and thin – in my opinion, they deserve a lot of success as a fanbase and that is what we’re working towards.
“We want success and the start of any successful journey is effort and that is what we will continue to bring to the table, in the hope that that gains us a lot of points.
“It’s about making your home a fortress, because any successful season is built on good home form and good away form as well.
“But home form is ultimately the most important thing, because that is your patch and we want it to be the most horrible, hostile place for teams to have to come to.
“That is from the stands - and our support has been fantastic, this season – and on the pitch, by grafting and doing what is required, because that gives the fans something to scream and shout about and get behind.”
Colchester, who were without a game at the weekend due to international call-ups, are currently three unbeaten and have lost only one of their last nine games, in all competitions.
“If we can go five and six and seven and ten games unbeaten, then that’s going to put us in a really good psychological state and in a really good state, in the table,” said Taylor, who featured for Montserrat against Bonaire.
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“That then will create success, for the group and that’s something that we have to work on every day, on the training field.”
Colchester are next in action against Cheltenham Town on Saturday, with boss Cowley having decisions to make following the draw at Leyton Orient in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy last week.
Taylor added: “We’ve spoken about having a good squad.
“There is no point us talking about having a good squad if you don’t use the squad or if you don’t trust the squad and that’s what the manager does.
“He’s said to us countless times ‘you all have my trust – you have to go out there on the training pitch and earn your shirt and when you’re given the shirt, it’s your shirt to keep’.
“If you don’t keep it, there’ll be somebody chomping at the bit, waiting in the wings ready to come in.
“I came out of the team at Port Vale and Hops (Tom Hopper) came back in after a couple of weeks sidelined and he was exceptional.
“His willingness to put himself on the line for this team is unbelievable.
“There was one moment where he was at left-back winning a tackle and then he was at right-back clearing the ball and then he was up top winning a flick-on and that epitomises what we want to be.
“If we all work as hard as Hops does, we will have a successful season.”
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