Phil Parkinson described this as his Colchester United squad's biggest game of the season to date.

The U's boss said: "I told the lads that I couldn't stress enough how important the game was.

"'Look at the League table', I told them. 'Win and we establish ourselves among the top six lose and we could soon find ourselves sliding down the table'.

"The League is our bread and butter and I was very pleased with our first-half performance. The lads were excellent and we thoroughly deserved to go in at half-time with a 2-0 lead.

"If I want to be hyper-critical, I was very disappointed not to keep a clean sheet.@

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Published Monday, October 4, 2004

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