First-team coach Matt Gill believes “consistency of style and identity” are going to be vital during the season ahead and felt the players showed that they had taken on board what's been worked on during pre-season up to now in the two 75-minute friendlies at Colchester on Tuesday.
"We were looking for some patterns of play that we’ve been working on and the lads did that," Gill told the club site, reflecting on the 4-0 and 1-0 defeats of the U’s at the JobServe Community Stadium.
"It was important to set the tone on how we’re trying to play this season and to get off to a good start.
"I’m really pleased that the lads have taken information on board from the coaching staff. Hopefully we can take that into the next game.
"We reviewed last season and looked at what we could have done better. That consistency of style and identity is going to be vital this year.
"That’s consistency from the staff then hopefully that provides consistency for the players. That’s going to be important going forward and hopefully we can build on that.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s friendly at Tottenham, he added: "We need to look at the bigger picture in terms of what we’re going to take into our season.
"There will be times where we’re going to be played around against Spurs, like when we’re looking to press but you're not going to be going up against Spurs every week.
"There’s a bit of stuff on who you’re going to be going up against but ultimately, it’s about the longer term goals and the process of what we’re going to be like, in and out of possession, during the course of the season.”