Colchester United boss Tony Humes admits his side need to improve their home form if they are to climb up the League One table.

But he believes they can end their calendar year at the Weston Homes Community Stadium on a winning note when they host Gillingham, on Boxing Day (kick-off 3pm).

Colchester have won only twice at home in the league all season, with only Barnsley having conceded more goals in front of their own fans in the third tier.

But they come up against a struggling Gills side who have tasted league victory only once on their travels all season, mustering only eight goals in that time.

Humes believes Colchester’s basement battle with Gillingham is a good chance for them to record their first league home victory since October.

He said: “We need to get more results at home and it’s a great opportunity on Boxing Day to do that.

“We need to be better at home - it’s something we’ve been striving for over the last few years, to make the stadium a harder place for our opponents to play.

“Teams are coming to play differently against us but we need to express ourselves a little bit more at times.

“We still want to be creative because we’ve got talented players but we just want to get that little bit of ruthlessness back.

“As long as we can stay in games, we have a chance of winning.

“We’ll be going into the game looking to win but bearing in mind what happened against Rochdale, we don’t want to put ourselves out of the game.

“We might be a bit cautious to start with and we’re expecting Gillingham to come here and make it difficult for us.

“We have to be patient enough to keep the ball and see where we can get our success from.

“Teams are coming here to make it difficult for us and we have to be patient with it and not go gung-ho and try and win the game in the first 15 minutes.”

Colchester have already played Gillingham at the Community Stadium this season, losing on penalties after their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie finished 3-3.

But Humes is expecting the Boxing Day encounter between the two sides to be a different affair.

“They were two very different teams that met in the JPT,” said the U’s boss.

“Gillingham made a lot of changes that night to their regular team and the game was a very open one.

“I can see it being different on Friday and them coming here not being as open as they were.

“The emphasis we have put in is on being more solid and I can see it being a bit cagier.

“But we don’t want it to stop us from playing our football, which is one of our strengths.”

Colchester are likely to name an unchanged side for the Gillingham game, despite Sanchez Watt’s return to the squad following a minor hip injury.

Alex Gilbey, Magnus Okuonghae, Frankie Kent, Drey Wright, Michael O’Donoghue and Tosin Olufemi all remain sidelined.