We're aware of importance of Grimsby clash

It's a vitally important game for us against Grimsby Town, on Saturday.

We have to nip this four-game winless sequence in the bud quickly and get ourselves back on track again and go on another run.

We have to build a run that’s similar to the one that we’ve been on earlier in the season and get ourselves back into the kind of position where we’re pushing for at least the play-offs and hopefully, automatic promotion.

We’re very aware of that as players and all of the work this week has been centred on getting out there again and getting back on track.

We know that Grimsby will be a tough game, though.

An early goal would definitely settle us down on Saturday and help put our opponents on the back foot.

When we score first at home, we generally go on to win the game under the manager, so that’s what we’ll be trying to do.

They’ve had a run of disappointing results but it’s a tricky one when you’re playing against a team who have had that kind of run.

They’re coming into it on the back of a bad run but teams in our league tend to bounce back and it’s up to us to make sure that it’s not against us.

We picked up our first away point of the season at Grimsby Town back in September but having been ahead in the game, it felt more like a defeat than a 2-2 draw in the changing room afterwards.

On paper though, a point at Grimsby on a Tuesday night is not a bad result and the performance that we put in away from home that night was important.

It helped us build a platform to go on and get a good win at Yeovil a few days later and we went on from there.

We were not good enough on the day

We felt that we let ourselves down a bit at Wycombe Wanderers last weekend and it was unlike us, as a team.

Unfortunately for us, it was the right result.

We weren’t good enough on the day, which was disappointing.

We’d had a very good week of training going into the game and we were full of energy and enthusiasm, looking to amends after the Cheltenham loss.

We put ourselves in such a good position to challenge for promotion going into a game against one of our key promotion rivals, because our form had been very good over the last two or three months.

Now it’s up to us to do whatever we can do to get back on track.

I’m the sort of person who tries to take the positives out of everything and not look too much at the negatives.

There were some good things to come out of the Wycombe game for us, despite the result.

Pross coming back into first-team action as a second-half substitute was great and I’m delighted for him.

I was so pleased for him because I’ve seen what he’s been through with his knee injury over the last 18 months.

Despite being out during that long period though, he’s still made sure he’s been a part of our changing room at our home games and some of our away games, too.

It was great to have him back.

Another positive last weekend for us was the performance of Courtney Senior.

He was excellent when he came on as a substitute in the 75th minute and in my opinion was a candidate for being our man of the match, despite being only on the pitch for a short amount of time.

He showed the kind of promise that he’s shown for the under-23s.

Ryan Inniss’s return to the starting line-up was also a good thing for us, too.

He’s been out for a few weeks with a shoulder injury and to have him back with his influence both on and off the pitch was great.

Comley's move is similar to mine

It's fantastic news that Brandon Comley turned his loan with us into a permanent deal yesterday.

He’s signed a deal with us until 2020 after joining from QPR and in a way, it’s a similar situation to the one I had when I joined Colchester.

I was around the same age as Coms and also joined on a permanent deal in the January, having been on loan from Chelsea in the first part of the season.

It’s ideal for him to get a good length of contract and that’s credit to him as a player and what he has done since he has come here on loan.

He’s a fantastic lad and everyone has seen what he can being to the team.

He’s a very level-headed person and has a great mentality, so I’m sure making the switch to us from a Championship club on a permanent basis will not be a problem for him.

When you’re on loan, you have the certainty of going back to your parent club if it doesn’t work out but Coms is our player now and his mentality since he’s been with us has been superb.

Cyrille was a pioneer

I was very sad to hear the news earlier this week that Cyrille Regis had passed away.

He was most recently working as an agent and in the past, had been at the training ground or at our games, up and down the country.

It was a very sad day and 59 is no age at all.

He’s a pioneer for black footballers and football is right to mourn his passing.

I've had first-hand knowledge of Ronaldinho's talent

So Ronaldinho has officially announced his retirement from football at the age of 37.

I think he will go down as one of the most skilful players that we’ve seen.

When I was a youngster at Chelsea, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a ball boy on a number of occasions.

I was fortunate enough to do it in a number of their Champions League games and one of them was their match against Barcelona, with Ronaldinho in the team.

Being near the touchline, I was able to experience him pretty much first hand playing for what was at the time, a hell of a Barcelona team full of legends.

At the time, I was mesmerised by just how skilful he was.

I was ball boy on several occasions when I was at Chelsea and it was a great learning curve for me.

I used to be behind the goal and I was able to watch the likes of Petr Cech and Victor Valdes at first hand, not just when the ball was near but also at other times.

A surreal experience in terrible gear

It was funny to hear about the guy who was stitched up by his mates after they clubbed together to pay for him to be one of Brentford’s matchday mascots at their game against Bolton Wanderers, as part of his stag do.

It must have been really funny for him to have been given a tour of the dressing room meeting all of the players, before the game!

Before I got married last summer, I had a stag do and was also stitched up by my friends but thankfully, not to the same extent.

I was dressed up in some terrible gear – a mis-match of some funny clothes -which is why I was slightly thrown when I met a Colchester United fan in the wee small hours of the morning at Stansted Airport, before we boarded an early flight!

I couldn’t believe it – it was certainly one of my more surreal moments!

Coffee, anyone?

Apparently, a study has shown that drinking tea makes people more creative.

I like the odd cup of tea, especially if I’m at the cricket in the summer but generally speaking, I’m a coffee drinker.

It forms a big part of my day – I have one in the morning, one before training and end up have another three or four cups after.

I’m not the only one in our squad to like coffee – there’s a few of us who drink it.

So much so that we now have a coffee machine at the training ground!

Right game, wrong day

It will be interesting to see what Stoke City’s new manager Paul Lambert thinks about Saido Berahino’s confusion the other day.

The former West Brom striker appeared to get mixed up and turned up a day early at the training ground for his side’s Premier League game at Manchester United, arriving ready for action on Sunday when the game was Monday night.

That’s just so rookie!

You do get players late for training from time to time but I’ve never had any team-mates that haven’t realised when the game is.

At Colchester, we have a fine system in place for all sorts of things like players being late for training or meetings or for having their phones when they shouldn’t.

The money from the fines go towards our Christmas party or end-of-season bash – so it all goes to a good cause!