DANNY Cowley is urging his Colchester United side to build on their momentum when they host Bradford City tomorrow.

The U's spirits have been lifted by a comprehensive 3-0 midweek win over Arsenal under-21s in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy and a late equaliser securing their a point at Barrow, last weekend.

Colchester head into the Bradford game boosted by the availability of top scorer Lyle Taylor and Samson Tovide and boss Cowley says spirits have been lifted, as they aim to move away from the League Two relegation zone with a win.

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Cowley said: “We’ve been able to get some momentum off the back of Lyle’s 90th-minute equaliser and a really good performance, on Tuesday.

“For us, we’ve worked hard to try to find some momentum and I think we have some and we hope to take that energy into the game.

“Confidence is a very fragile commodity and when you do get some momentum, we know that this can breed confidence.

"We know the power of confidence and what it can do to player performance."

Colchester host a Bradford side who sit two points off the League Two play-offs, in tenth spot.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

“It’s a good test against a team I would anticipate to be right in and around the automatic promotion places," said Cowley.

“We know that we have to find our best performance, if we want to get a positive result.

“We have a lot of respect for Bradford.

“They’re a huge club and naturally, there’s a big expectation that comes with a big club, in League Two.

“They’ve got a very experienced manager in Graham Alexander and I think they’ve got some of the best players in the division.

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“We have a good understanding of how they play and their strengths and I think they’re a team that can really mix their game up well.

“They’re definitely playing with a lot more control than maybe they have done, in previous seasons, mixing it up and looking to build on the first line and play through the pitch.

“They also have the opportunity to play over with some physical forwards at their disposal, so I think they’ve got a nice balance to the way that they play."

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

Cowley must decide whether or not to start with Tovide, after the young striker made a big impact off the bench at Barrow following a return from injury.

He added: “We’ll have to wait and see how much availability we have for Samson and whether we can use him from the start and whether we finish with him.

“It’s brilliant to have Samson back after about 18 days.

“He first felt it in the Cheltenham game and came off after about half an hour, in that game.

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“We anticipated initially that it might be a bit longer than that but Hayden (Clifton) and the medical team have done a great job with managing him through this process and accelerating it.

“It was great to have him back off the bench last Saturday and we had to be disciplined with him on Tuesday night but we have managed to get a full week of training into him, as a consequence of holding back on Tuesday night.

“So hopefully, he’ll go into the Bradford game in a much better place and we’ll try to make an intelligent call and listen to the medical advice and be aware of all of the data we have, because we know how important he is to us and to the team.”