Facing Tottenham Hotspur was naturally the last thing on Kevin Keen’s mind in the aftermath of Colchester United’s demoralising defeat at Scunthorpe United.

A dark and damp Glanford Park on a winter’s evening is a far cry from the enticing prospect of taking on Premier League opposition in the FA Cup at a sold-out Weston Homes Community Stadium.

But the U’s current league predicament means that their game at Scunthorpe was more of a cup final than playing Spurs and their array of international stars.

Nevertheless, now that the dust has settled on the disappointment of last weekend’s defeat, the U’s boss will this week turn his attentions to probably the biggest game of his managerial career to date.

He will do so in the wake of making an honest admission that he will reconsider all aspects of his approach, as Keen looks for a way to get his Colchester side out of the rut that they are currently in.

At Scunthorpe, the U’s looked like a team who were not quite sure how to go about winning football matches.

As Owen Garvan said after the 3-0 defeat, they must quickly whether to battle or play their way through matches in order to secure precious points that are currently proving so elusive.

One of Keen’s problems at present is Colchester’s lack of goals, something that was not such an issue in the first few months of the season.

The U’s have hit the net just three times in their last six matches and none of those goals have come from attacking players.

In turn, such profligacy in front of goal typically puts more pressure on the defensive side of the game, hence Colchester’s rapid second-half decline at Scunthorpe.

Too many heads went down after the U’s went behind and their rock-bottom confidence at present is a real problem that Keen must tackle, if he is to achieve his objective of guiding his team out of danger.

With that in mind, a game against one of the Premier League’s leading teams is not really what struggling Colchester need at this moment in time – unless of course they pull off the kind of upset that would go down in FA Cup folklore.

But that surely won’t happen….will it?

For all of the build-up to the U's FA Cup game against Spurs, see the Daily Gazette.