Nuno's verdict on Colchester

There were plenty of positives for Nuno Espirito Santo after our 3-0 pre-season friendly win at Colchester United on Wednesday evening.

The intensity of the first half performance particularly caught the eye, with our front four of Dele, Lucas, Steven Bergwijn and Heung-Min Son causing the U's all sorts of problems. Oliver Skipp impressed on his return to action following injury, as did Japhet Tanganga in the second half.

Sonny, making his first appearance of the summer, took just 11 minutes to open his account, quickly followed by an assist for Lucas, who timed his run and jump to perfection to glance home Sonny’s corner. Dele added the third after a second assist for Sonny, the goalscoring wrapped up before half-time.

“That was the idea, the tempo, the intensity, the rhythm of the game was good, the boys worked really, really hard and that was the main point, to work hard,” reflected Nuno on our second friendly after Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient, and he was pleased to see both Skippy and Japhet back from injury.

“We had to be really careful,” he added. “Us, the doctors were worried because he’s (Skippy) coming back from injury, so we had to measure the time not only with him, but Japhet also, we’re very careful with the players. But good for him, and it’s always nice to have bodies, so the more players you have, the more options and the more solutions you’ll find.”

It’s now a week until our next pre-season match at MK Dons on 28 July (7.45pm). What was the plan until then? “Now we recover the boys tomorrow,” added Nuno. “We’ll have a good session and at the same time, the players who didn’t have as much time will work, and we’ll keep our cycles until we approach the competition. It’s all about building, improving, getting faster, getting stronger. It’s all about that.”