IT’S been a solid start to the season for my old club Colchester United.

I’ve always been a big fan of John McGreal and he’s done a very good job there.

They made some good signings in the summer and one of the good things is that they’re scoring a lot of goals and not relying on just one or two.

What they’ve done so far has been very promising and a good start is always good for confidence, that’s for sure.

The key now is for them to carry it on, because sometimes you see sides have a good start and then their form peters out.

Any side looking to win promotion has to strive for consistency.

When we won promotion under Parky in 2006, we used to break the season down to six or seven-game instalments and target a points tally we wanted to get from that period.

It was almost like we had six or seven different mini leagues in a season, mainly to keep that hunger and motivation that’s so important.

It can be a long season at times and when he broke it down like that, it definitely helped us.

The big things when you’re looking to win promotion are consistency and punishing teams when you’re on top.

There were games in that promotion season when we didn’t play to our best but had a 20-25-minute spell in games when we were on top and we’d be out of sight, because we punished teams.

You then have to have a work rate after that and want to stop goals going in, at the other end.

Colchester have picked up a lot of points so far and personally, I’d rather win a couple of games and lose one, rather than win and then draw a couple.

Whatever happens, you want to keep those wins coming thick and fast.

It’s promising that they’ve been effective at both ends of the pitch – when you’re scoring goals and not conceding them, it’s the perfect recipe.

Colchester have a tough game this weekend, at Oldham which will be an interesting gauge of where they are.

Boundary Park is a tough place to go and it will be a real test for them.

It was always cold, grey and miserable when we played there and the changing rooms were always narrow and small.

I wouldn’t use the word intimidating but usually when you went there, the showers were terrible and it wasn’t an appealing place to play football.

Oldham always used to have a good side when we played there – there were often helped by ex-Man United players and had the likes of Richie Wellens playing for them.

You always knew that it would be a tough place to go and I remember getting sent off there once after picking up two yellow cards.

But Colchester shouldn’t be fearing anyone at the moment.

They’ll do their homework on Oldham but they will also play their own game.

It’s early days at the moment but they’re showing consistency and long may it continue.