JOHN McGreal wants his Colchester United players to wrap up an impressive opening month of the season on a high tonight.

The U’s head to Crawley Town for their opening group stage game in the revamped Checkatrade Trophy on the back of taking ten points from the opening five League Two matches in August.

Colchester have won three of their last four games and have kicked off the new campaign in encouraging fashion, following their relegation last season.

McGreal now wants them to finish a productive month on a high, by overcoming the Reds at the Checkatrade Stadium tonight.

McGreal said: “It would be great to finish the month with a win.

“We don’t give the numbers outside but we do set our targets in the group of players and it’s a terrific start.

“We've had five games in the league and there’s loads of games left.

“But it’s been a terrific month and Steve (Ball) and I couldn’t ask any more of the players.

“It’s been enjoyable to work with them but it is a start and the key now for us is to keep building on it.

“We know that we’re not going to win every game and there’s going to be losses in there but it’s how you react to that.”

McGreal is set to make changes to his Colchester starting line-up up tonight.

Denny Johnstone, Alex Wynter and Macauley Bonne are all in line for recalls, while midfielder Owen Garvan could also feature for the first time this season.

To abide with competition rules, the U’s must field at least five players from the side they started at Wycombe Wanderers last weekend or five of their 11 appearance makers so far this season.

“It’s an opportunity – the group games mean that it’s more games for us and we’ve got a big squad,” said McGreal, who will be without Craig Slater and James Bransgrove due to their Scotland under-21 call-ups.

“We're looking to go and try win games of football – that’s what we’ve said from the outset.

“Whether we use our squad (against Crawley), who knows – we still have another couple of games in that league anyway.

“We’ll let the lads recuperate and hopefully the boys will recover in time to go again.

“It’s a fifth away match in seven games but the boys are hungry for it so I’m sure they’ll recover well.”

Colchester are looking for their first win in the Football League Trophy for nearly eight years tonight.

Their last victory in the competition came back in November, 2008 when loanee Sam Williams netted the winner in a 1-0 triumph at AFC Bournemouth.

Probable U’s line-up: Barnes, Brindley, Wynter, Prosser, Kinsella, Lapslie, Garvan, Guthrie, Dickenson, Szmodics, Johnstone.