Colchester United head coach John McGreal wants his “back-up players” to grasp their opportunity at Forest Green Rovers today.

The U’s boss could be forced to change a winning team for the trip to the New Lawn following their bruising encounter against Luton Town on Good Friday.

Tom Lapslie, Brennan Dickenson and Ben Stevenson will all be assessed prior to this afternoon’s clash and boss McGreal wants squad members who come into the team to take their chance.

McGreal said: “We’ve taken a few injuries and now we’re looking at the back-up players we’ve got.

“There will be opportunities for other players now.

“The conditions (against Luton) were quite tough with the heavy rain and heavy pitch.

“We’ve thrown down the challenge to the boys to win games and stay in the team.

“We’re hoping we might not have to change one or two but if we do, we think we have the squad to do that.”

Colchester are six points off the play-off positions heading into today’s game, while Forest Green are fourth from bottom.

McGreal said: “We show respect to everybody in this league – it’s not so much about the top or the bottom sides and we take every game as tough.

“You only have to look back at Forest Green’s last performance when they beat Mansfield and it’ll be a really, really tough game down there.

“Mark Cooper has got them playing a good brand of football and they’ll be looking for points, so it should be a good game of football.

“Their game against Yeovil was called off (on Good Friday) because of a heavy pitch but it will be a game where we’re looking to get the three points.”