Graeson looks ahead to Saturday's visit of third place Bristol City at Layer Road as the U's look to get out of the bottom three.

The next two Saturday's may well go a long way to deciding Colchester United's future. Next weekend, they face Wolverhampton Wanderers at home, but this Saturday, they entertain third place Bristol City at Layer Road. The Robins missed the chance to go top on Monday evening when they rescued a draw against Crystal Palace in the last minute of injury time and they are sure to give this new look U's a tough ninety minutes.

Gary Johnson's men were promoted from League One last season as runners-up but have taken The Championship by storm. After an impressive early start, most commentators expected them to drop away but its all credit to the management team at Ashton Gate that they are where they are.

That's in third place, a point behind both Stoke City and Watford albeit with a goal difference of just plus one. A win on Monday night would have seen them top the table thanks to a home record which has seen them win ten and lose just two of their seventeen home games this season. Away from Ashton Gate their record shows six wins, five draws and five defeats. Though they've conceded 23 goals, they have also scored fifteen.

Bristol's success is even more impressive when you consider that there are no real stars in the line-up. Lee Trundle is the name that is perhaps most well-known but since his one million pound move from Swansea last summer he's scored just three goals in the league and two of those came against Scunthorpe back in August.

Elsewhere recent signing Nick Carle has attracted attention for some impressive displays following his January move from Turkish side G'birligi Ankara. The former Australian League Player of the Year in 2006, he was man-marked out of the game against Crystal Palace by Carl Fletcher to the point that he was substituted. I wonder whether Williams will follow the example shown by Neil Warnock and do the same to stifle the Australian man's creativity.

On Monday night, City played a 4-5-1 formation which I expect them to replicate on Saturday at Layer Road. Up front on his own, and doing a decent job as well, was Dele Adebola who is on loan from a rapidly dropping Coventry City. He is supplied with crosses from Michael McIndoe and the impressive Ivan Sproule. The Sky commentary team referred to these two as 'Pigeon Catchers' and its true that the U's will have problems if they allow either of these two to get the wrong side of them. That will mean that the U's probably have to play deeper then they would usually like but with only one man in the central area in Adebola there should be a spare defender to pick up the knock down's. Williams will have to decide who gets to pick up Carle who will play just off Adebola - should a midfielder pick him up or that spare defender? For me, I would say it’s a midfielder's job and the one closest to him when the opposition get the ball.

Since New Year's Day, Bristol City have played eight League games and suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup. From those eight games they have picked up fourteen of the 24 points available to them, including a one-one draw with the U's at Ashton Gate.

They recorded victories over Coventry (2-1 at home), Blackpool thanks to Marvin Elliott's goal, against Sheffield Wednesday and away at Scunthorpe - their last away game - when Bradley Orr's 83rd minute goal was the only one of the game. However, in that time they also lost 2-0 at Palace, and a subsequent trip to QPR saw them hammered 3-0 by Luigi De Canio's side.

On Monday night, City drew one apiece with Crystal Palace in a game that came alive in the second half. Seventeen year old Lee Halls put Palace ahead and it looked enough to win the game especially after Julian Speroni's double save from Bradley Orr's penalty which was probably justice as the award of a spot-kick looked very dubious in the first place. After signalling that there would be a minimum of four minutes injury time, City were allowed to take a corner five and a half minutes into injury time. You've guessed, of course, that Jamie McCombe beat everyone in the six yard to power a header past Speroni to rescue a point.

As previously mentioned, the U's drew one apiece at Ashton Gate just last month and could probably count themselves once again unlucky. Kevin Lisbie put the U's ahead and then had a similar chance which Brazilian keeper Adriano Basso just managed to keep out. Ivan Sproule scored a good goal to restore parity but many will argue that the U's should have had a late penalty after Lisbie was fouled in the box by Vasko.

Currently, City have the better record in games between the two sides with sixteen wins in all competitions compared to the U's thirteen, with eleven draws. United are unbeaten in the last three encounters with two draws and a 3-2 win over City in Jan 2006 thanks to a brace from Neil Danns who is now with Crystal Palace.

Almost eight years ago to the day, United produced one of their best performances of the season to beat Bristol 4-0 at Layer Road with veteran midfield Micky Stockwell in superb form. The former Ipswich man scored once and a hand in the two of the three other goals scored by David Gregory, Joe Keith and Barry Conlon. Of that game only Karl Duguid remains for the U's while Scott Murray and Louis Carey of City are still with their respective teams.

The side that day was Andy Woodman, Joe Dunne, Joe Keith, Ross Johnson, Simon Clark, Scott Fitzgerald, Aaron Skelton, David Gregory (Gavin Johnson 45), Micky Stockwell (Steve McGavin 66), Barry Conlon, and Karl Duguid (Scott McGleish 89) with Simon Brown and Alan White the unused subs. City's team was Steve Phillips in goal, Louis Carey, Keith Millen, Scott Murray, Peter Beadle, Lee Peacock, Aaron Brown, Brian Tinnion, Kevin Amankwaah (Matt Hill 52), Simon Clist (Tony Thorpe 72), and Craig Woodman with Joe Burnell, Marvin Brown and Tony Malessa the unused subs.

Graeson's Team

The news that Mark Yeates is likely to miss the rest of the season will come as a blow to Geraint Williams and the rest of the squad. Though the Irishman hadn't been firing on all cylinders in recent weeks he is still the most creative member of the side and he gives us another option at free-kicks. It is also a pity that an ankle injury picked up last weekend will also rule out Adam Virgo this weekend as the on-loan Celtic man had finally started to show some form at the back.

However, Williams will be boosted by the news that Dean Hammond - who signed for the club on transfer deadline day for £250k from Brighton - is now ready for inclusion in the team. Also, I hope that Kevin Lisbie might also be fit to face The Robins as I still feel we need his pace to really stretch defences and gives us a different option. It’s likely though, that he'll have to make do with a place on the bench though.

So my team will see Gerken in goal obviously. It’s a straight fit between Pat Baldwin and Bela Balogh to see who will partner Chris Coyne though Danny Granville did himself no harm with his second half performance at Hull when replacing Virgo. If it were down to me, I think I'd go with the Hungarian International as his distribution from the back is far better than Baldwin's.

In midfield, I'm not sure that Williams will make any changes leaving Duguid, Izzet, Jackson and McLeod in. Williams might want to bring in Hammond for McLeod but that would mean shifting the in-form Jackson out wide which would seem a waste to me.

Up front, if Lisbie isn't available or quite fit enough for ninety minutes then it has to be Vernon and Platt. Sadly, the Teddy experiment doesn't appear to have worked out - though I suspect he might play well with Lisbie still as there would be pace - but he cannot play with Platt as it makes the U's just too slow and predictable.

Graeson's Prediction

I always enjoy our games with City as over the years they've been games for the purists to enjoy with the ball on the deck for the majority of the game. It will be interesting to see if Johnson's version of the red half of the City is any different.

I hope that they still play decent football as the U's have always been better against sides prepared to put the ball on the deck and play it around a bit (witness our wins over West Brom and Charlton so far this season). With that in mind, and the fact that City might not be prepared for whats about to hit them at Layer Road, I think the U's can pick up all three points thanks to a 2-0 win. That clean sheet has come sooner or later and why not against City?

U's to win thanks to Platt and a rare late goal from Kem Izzet.

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