JOHN McGreal believes Colchester United will be taking on a ‘formidable’ side when they host Forest Green Rovers tonight.

The U’s are hoping to follow up their 3-0 win over Newport County with another victory to boost their promotion hopes.

They host a Forest Green team who themselves have resided in League Two’s top-seven places for a large chunk of the season.

Mark Cooper’s side dropped out of the play-off positions following a 3-0 loss at Morecambe last weekend, their third defeat on the spin.

Nevertheless, U’s head coach McGreal insists his team will need to be at their best as they go in search of a second straight win.

McGreal said: “We’ll do our work and then it’s another home game under the lights for our fans to look forward to.

“We play a totally different team again and Forest Green will bring their own threats.

“We got a reaction (against Newport) but now we have to try and back that up against another formidable team in division two who have done particularly well again, this season.

“It’s a different style again and Coops (Mark Cooper) will come here with his team looking for the win as much as we are, so we know that it’s going to be another tough game.”

McGreal must decide whether or not to stick with the same starting line-up that performed so well against Newport.

The U’s boss made three changes to his side for the game against the Exiles, bringing in Luke Norris, Tom Eastman and leading scorer Sammie Szmodics for skipper Luke Prosser, Diaz Wright and Brennan Dickenson.

Striker Mikael Mandron impressed in a more withdrawn role and McGreal says he is not afraid to make changes, if necessary.

“We’ve had a chat with Luke and we have to try and mix things up a bit,” said McGreal.

“Luke totally understands that – we’ve got Tom Eastman who’s played 300-odd games and Frankie Kent who’s been playing to a high level.

“We want to keep that competition in there and we just felt as though this time, Tom deserved his opportunity.

“The players train every day with each other and we know what we’re about and what they’re about.

“When a change has to be made, we’ve said take your opportunity and that’s what we’ve been trying to do.

“We felt we had to mix one or two things around and bring in a little bit more physicality but knowing that we can drop Mika (Mandron) into that midfield area or as a number ten, just to give us that focal point knowing that a lot of balls go into (Jamille) Matt.

“I thought he nullified their threat.

“We played Mika as a number ten but we had to drop him in, just for their first phase coming from the keeper.

“He and Ben (Stevenson) complemented each other and Sam (Szmodics) was a bit further forward.”

Colchester will check on the fitness of Frank Nouble ahead of the Forest Green game, after he was substituted midway through the second half against Newport game with a calf injury.

Harry Pell, Tom Lapslie and Brandon Comley all remain sidelined for the Forest Green clash.