Colchester United will welcome Gillingham on New Year’s Day in what will be the U’s twenty-sixth Sky Bet League Two clash of the season.
The Opposition
Heading into their home game with Sutton on Friday night, the Gills had slipped into the bottom half of the table following a 2-0 defeat at Crawley, a result which extended their winless run to three games, without scoring a goal either. Gillingham started the 2023-24 campaign strongly, spending much of the opening two months leading the way at the top of the table, but despite winning six of their opening eight games, Gills have since won just four in the following fifteen.
Indeed, the Kent-based side were table-toppers when the U's travelled to Priestfield in late August, picking up their first win of the season with an impressive 3-0 victory.
Speaking ahead of the busy festive calendar, Gills boss Stephen Clemence [pictured below] said: "We have a busy period coming up, but we should be looking forward to it.
"I have had the festive period of football all my life and it is something we were used to in my family.
"We have a lot of games coming up, something like six games in twenty-one or twenty-two days. We have a good squad of players, and they are all going to be needed. They will have to be ready.
"It is a good period to go into when you have everybody fit, so long may that continue. Pretty much everyone is available to go now. It would be great to have more selection headaches.
"There are a lot of good players in that dressing room, and I will have no hesitation in playing any of them.
"We are going to play a lot over the coming weeks, we have had a rest, and we are now ready to go. The Christmas period always sorts one or two teams out with the games coming thick and fast, you can move quickly up the league or move down a number of places.
"We have to take it one game at a time. We know that if we can put a decent run together in this period then it will stand us in good stead for the season."
Gillingham have plenty of attacking threats that could cause issues for the U’s. One of them is Connor Mahoney [pictured above], who had six goal contributions in nineteen league games going into the Gills’ clash against Sutton on Friday 29th December.
Another player that Matty Etherington’s men will have to watch out for is Ethan Coleman. The twenty-three-year-old has been putting in decent performances in midfield this season providing a couple of assists.
Last Time We Met
The U’s travelled to then-league leaders Gillingham on 26th August 2023 looking for their first win of the campaign. Colchester put in an impressive performance with Kelleher, Tovide and Ihionvien scoring a goal each in the second half securing a 3-0 victory.
Ticket Info
Tickets are on sale at the ADVANCE rate from Col U Tickets - click HERE to get yours.
iFollow Info
If you can't make it to JobServe Community Stadium on Monday afternoon, you can watch all the action live on iFollow with a £10 Match Pass. An iFollow Pass includes a full live stream of the game, as well as commentary from our radio partners at BBC Essex - click HERE to get yours.
