Colchester United fan Matt Calmus on Cowleys' impact

Salford's frozen pitch put paid to play this past weekend, meaning our undefeated love-in to date can thrillingly last a little longer.

With football postponed, possibilities once seem again infinite; a welcome pause for the athletes too in our turbo-charged full on fixture calendar.

Played two, drawn both is how affairs have started for the new boss duo, first away at Swindon then home to Bradford last week.

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Whether that's the stuff of pure romance and an overdue real reunion between our players and fans after umpteen awkward managerial appointments, who knows; you'd hope so.

Can we all really live happily ever after this time? Having presided over sides in eight of the country's top nine divisions, Danny Cowley should have some emphatic answers to that rather open-ended question.

There'll be plot twists and cliffhangers aplenty along the way; with characters entering and leaving in swathes on centre stage.

The U's own Colchester-born media darling Sammie Szmodics says there was an air of inevitability about their Essex return; he's helped embellish the tale.

"Two great guys: they were always going to get the job eventually," he explained, reliving a brief brush together at Braintree on BBC Essex. Managerial legends reignited by United.

It's the notional daydream of better times ahead that universally sustains almost every Colchester fan you care to meet right now. How refreshing, how exciting; how showbiz.

May we no longer play a role of dejected outcasts in a postcode disproportionately overpopulated with fans of split loyalties elsewhere towards other teams; mutiny in the county.

A gallows humour and an understandably downbeat: 'Nice to see you under the circumstances,' funereal attitude in line with our perilous basement-leaning league standing can now subside, hopefully forever.

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This gives way to something rare and seldom seen in these parts: pure gleeful optimism.

The ubiquity of Danny and Nicky themselves, seemingly everywhere from Shrub End to Sky Sports in a whirlwind induction fortnight at the club, enhanced the arrival.

Personality is a powerful PR tool when it comes to capturing our cynical, previously scared hearts in Colchester.

Meet the new boss, same as the old? Not this time. Pantomime season is on hold here; for us fans, football just got decidedly real again.

It's a blockbuster entrance backed up with some obvious quick internal gains: chiefly outbreaks of increased coaching and contact time pitch side, as opposed to apparently nil beforehand.

Danny is also taking fan engagement to unprecedented levels by following core supporters' individual Twitter or X accounts and even a new dressing room speaker has been smartly installed, as carried in by Will Greenidge last Saturday week.

Danny's first true task is winning minds inside that locker room. Football-literate folk outside said sanctuary are already both convinced and excited, mostly because an uplift in potential should soon meet with some better results. Onus is therefore on a downbeat set of lads to embrace everything that they can.

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Nicky, meanwhile, makes a perfect foil for his brother's caper; quite the dark horse. We've already seen as much at an explosive end to that seesaw 2-2 debut draw in Swindon. Both were booked, amid some sensational fireworks to finish that game.

Showreel gold followed. Nicky pumped his fist in a uniting delight before our bouncing throng of unruly visiting fans, all behind a blissfully unaware referee; happily his back was against the action.

I met Nicky personally last week pre-game alongside Danny, later also bumping into U's alumnus Sam Walker.

Nicky turned and all-but said to me that he loved Colchester United, almost exactly like that famous mantra song that often floats down from on high in the crowd.

His bellowing "Come on Col U," greeting was reserved exclusively for my right ear; a joyous, elongated and authentic shout that shows: they're proper devotees. It was perfectly timed so as to catch me completely unawares.

No need then to consult the love song ledger or a nearest Mills & Boon playbook. For these insatiable brothers, this Essex homecoming leg is laced with a genuine affection and some real desire for success.

Now, we can only hope our Colchester United squad believes in that plot twist as much as the rest of us.