Graeson previews the U's Sky Live East Anglian derby against Norwich City.

Colchester United enter in to a vital period of the season tomorrow night with the first of three games over the next fortnight or so against sides currently struggling at the wrong end of the table. Its imperative that the U's get back to winning ways, especially at home, and what a better way to start than by putting one over former team-mates Jamie Cureton's Norwich City (Kick Off 5:20pm).

United go in to the game in the bottom three... well, that is, they might go into the game in the bottom three depending upon Coventry City later today. The Sky Blues will enter administration if their proposed take-over isn't agreed by 4pm and if that happens, they will automatically be deducted ten points. That would put them level with bottom club Preston, and the U's would move out of the relegation places.

The canaries are currently just a place and a point better off than the U's. However, they've won just one away game, drawn another but lost eight other games away from Carrow Road. Their poor start to the season saw Peter Grant sacked as boss with Glenn Roeder taking on the hot seat at the end of October. His eight games in charge have seen him victorious in half that number, with three defeats - a steady enough start for the former Newcastle boss.

Norwich's only away win this season came just a couple of weeks ago when they travelled to another struggling club Blackpool. Dion Dublin put City ahead only for Blackpool's on loan Polish striker Bartosz Slusarski to score his first goal in England seven minutes before the break. Martin Taylor, who was on loan from Birmingham but has recently returned to St Andrews amid rumours of a million pound move to QPR, scored for City with sixteen minutes remaining with Dublin making sure of the points in the last minute.

The Canaries only other point on the road came at Preston on the opening day when the two clubs failed to find a goal between them but since then trips to Hull, Charlton, Wolves, QPR (when they were absolutely terrible), Burnley, West Brom, and Plymouth have yielded absolutely no return. Their last away game was at Stoke City on the first day of December. Darren Huckerby put them ahead after five minutes but a goal a minute after the break from Leon Cort restored parity and Richard Cresswell scored an 89th minute winner for Tony Pulis' side.

Last Saturday, Norwich beat Bryan Robson's Sheffield United at Carrow Road with Manchester City striker Ched Evans scoring his second goal for the club since arriving on loan.

A look at Norwich's starting eleven for that fixture shows a side that had got experience in the top flight of either the English or Scottish Leagues. David Marshall, Mo Camara and Mark Fotheringham all played for Celtic while John Otsembor arrived from Liverpool via Crewe Alexandra. Jason Shackell was with The Canaries when they dropped out of the Premiership whilst Darren Huckerby has always been too good for The Championship, but not quite good enough for The Premiership. Jimmy Smith is on loan from Chelsea after having a similar spell with QPR last year while Matty Pattison was involved in Newcastle's first team. Dion Dublin needs no introduction so that just leaves one player without top-flight experience... a Mr J Cureton.

Cureton hurt people last season. A lot of people. The U's rescued him from oblivion in League Two with Swindon Town and thanks to the efforts of his team-mates, helped him to become the top goal-scorer in The Championship. How did he repay the U's management? By engineering a move away from the club by going public about his desire to move. Sorry, but that's not how things are done in my view. Had Norwich come in and said we'd like to buy him and he'd kept his mouth shut I don't think there's a U's fan in the country who wouldn't have said 'thanks for all you've done Jamie'. However, the behind the back method used by Cureton, and his agent in must be remembered, was completely and utterly the wrong thing to do. I think U's fans look at his current record of just four goals this season with a smile of satisfaction.

Last season's game at Layer Road was the first between the two teams in forty-seven years and oddly the same result was replicated with the U's winning 3-0. Back in February 1960 Martyn King's hat-trick divided the sides but in 2007 Cureton, Garcia and Iwelumo's goals after halftime helped the U's continue up the table against a Norwich side who, frankly, never looked interested.

Graeson's Team

I guess its pick any four from the defence once again for Geraint Williams who must be wondering whether he ran over a black cat during the close season. He really has been unlucky with injuries and suspensions meaning that he has been unable to pick a regular central defensive partnership all season. I just wonder though, whether we had a clue about this weekend's line-up in the aftermath of last week's 4-1 defeat at Cardiff with George Elokobi moving to the left-hand side of defence for the final quarter of an hour. I've seen Elokobi play there before albeit for the reserves and he's never looked out of place. He attacks the ball aerially, is left-footed and is always talking to his defenders. Given that all the other various partnerships have failed, perhaps its time to give the want-away Cameroonian his chance?

My preference for his partner is Bela Balogh who sadly seems to be a bit injury prone and never gets a genuinely long run in the team. I believe he might still have an ankle injury which rules him out of this weekend's action so I'll go with Matt Connolly alongside Elokobi.

At left back I'm going to bring Danny Granville back to the side while at right-back I'm thinking of playing Pat Baldwin. Now, I know Rio isn't going to get forward much but at the moment we really need to stop the goals going in at the other end and we've had a problem with balls to the back stick. When Halford was here it wasn't a worry as he was tall enough to deal with it, but on a couple of occasions Duguid has been caught out.

Duguid doesn't drop from the side however, as I'm going to switch him to the left hand side of midfield where he played most of his best games last season and will replace the disappointing Kevin McLeod.

The U's missed the steel and harrying supplied by Kem Izzet so the U's midfielder will come back in to the side after his one game ban leaving Johnnie Jackson and Kevin Watson in a straight fight for the last remaining place - though Jackson might move to the left-hand side in some teams. Mark Yeates will, of course, supply the creativity on the right-hand side of midfield though if you do play Jackson on the left, the three midfielders can tuck in centrally giving the Irish man a free role behind the front two.

Up front Kevin Lisbie will get the nod and then it's between Sheringham and Platt for the last position. We haven't seen enough of the former England International gracing the Layer Road turf so I think Teddy will get that final place in the starting line-up.

Graeson's Prediction

This is an important game make no mistake and it's vital that everyone, and I mean everyone, works together to achieve victory. We need a loud, proud U's support cheering their team and making Layer Road a hostile place for the visitors - rarely this season have the fans achieved that like they did last year. Ignore Cureton and support the U's - that will hurt him more than any sort of vitriolic hate campaign.

The U's are due a win at Layer Road and with Norwich losing the defensive attributes of Martin Taylor this weekend I feel that the U's will score at least a couple of goals.

Can Norwich score that many? Huckerby hasn't really fired in to life this season - he's been more interested in slamming the club's Board of Directors it seems, and last season the Layer Road experience was not one he enjoyed. The biggest goal threat appears to come from Cureton - but if we can keep him quiet for ninety minutes, the U's will get the three points.

So my prediction is for a 2-0 win with Sheringham and Yeates getting a goal in each half.

Photo: Action Images

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