DEFENDER Frankie Kent knows that patience may be a key factor if Colchester United are to have success in their home League Two clash against Lincoln City tonight.

The U's have taken points in seven of their nine fixtures at the Weston Homes Community Stadium so far this year - including one from their 0-0 draw with Morecambe on Saturday - and they will be looking to build on that tally against the Imps.

However, Danny Cowley's team will arrive in possession of one of the meanest defensive records in the division.

Morecambe came set up to frustrate at the weekend and with only Coventry having a better goals against tally than Lincoln, Kent knows the hosts will have to work hard to break tonight's visitors down.

He said: “Teams are coming here and making it hard for us to do our stuff and play the way we want to play.

“The gaffer says it is the price we have to pay for being on a good run and he reiterated that we just have to keep working hard to break teams down.

“We’ve been getting good results and good clean sheets over the past five or six weeks.

“It’s a risk if we bomb forward and forget our defensive responsibilities and we’ve seen that in one or two games.

“I can see our run continuing, as long as we keep working hard."

The U's have hardly been generous to visitors on their own turf this year, though, and only four teams in the division have conceded fewer goals at home.

Kent has been an integral part of that successful defensive unit, having made 20 appearances so far this year, but he was grateful for another member of that rear guard for digging him out of a hole against Morecambe.

A misplaced back pass almost gifted the Shrimps a goal, but U's keeper Sam Walker was on hand to snuff out the danger.

Kent added: “He (Wildig) flicked it round the corner and I was thinking ‘should I give it to Tom Eastman here?’

“But then I decided to go to Sam (Walker), thinking he could switch it out to Jacko.

“But then, as soon as I passed it, I saw a yellow shirt.

“I was thinking ‘what’s he going to do?’ and luckily I got away with it.

“We had chances and Drey (Wright) hit the bar with a great drive but it just wasn’t our day.

“I think we did quite well.

“You could see within the first ten or 15 minutes that Morecambe were out to make life difficult for us.

“We had a bright start with one or two chances but then they came back into the game.”