COLCHESTER United head coach John McGreal is confident they have the squad strength to cope with two gruelling trips in the space of four days.

The U’s head up to Grimsby Town tonight, hot on the heels of their 600-mile round trip to take on Morecambe, last weekend.

Colchester will check on the fitness of key attacker Sammie Szmodics prior to their game at Blundell Park, after he missed their 1-0 win against the Shrimps.

But even if Szmodics is absent, boss McGreal insists they have the resources to deal with another demanding away day.

McGreal said: “The dressing room was absolutely bouncing (after the Morecambe win) and they’ll be ready to go again.

“If not, we have players on the bench like Brennan Dickenson, Brandon Comley and Aaron Collins who have come into the heat of the battle (at Morecambe) and stepped right in, so credit to them.

“I don’t how they’ve put these fixtures together.

“We’ve got to get on the road again early on Tuesday morning but we’ll recover – we feel as though we’ve got a good squad.”

McGreal admits Szmodics is doubtful for the game against the Mariners, after he sat out his first League Two game of the season with a leg injury.

An X-ray revealed last Friday that there was no serious damage caused by the training-ground injury but the former Stanway School pupil will need to be assessed.

“We don’t know if Sammie will make the Grimsby game,” said McGreal.

“The physio Tony (Flynn) has said that it’s only soft tissue and we’ve needed that X-ray just to make sure that it isn’t in the same area as the injury he had at Crewe, about 18 months ago.

“That’s all clear but he just felt as though he wasn’t right.

“We’ll assess – I know he’s been in over the weekend to see how it is with the other physio Alec (Stefanakis) and see how we go.”

McGreal must decide whether or not to stick with the same starting line-up that battled to victory at Morecambe or freshen things up tonight.

He will also consider his side’s formation, after switching to a 3-5-2 system and deploying wing-backs at the Globe Arena, following Szmodics’ injury.

Colchester briefly reverted to a flat-back four at Morecambe after finding themselves pushed back by the hosts, before quickly going back to a defensive three.

The U’s were able to secure their first clean sheet in six league games last Saturday, having shipped six goals in their previous two away games.

McGreal added: “We have to look at whether we change the shape or we change the personnel, because we need to see how the boys recover as well.

“We tried to change it to a four (at Morecambe) but it didn’t really work, in the heat of the battle.

“We reverted it back straight away and it’s definitely something we’ll have to look at for Tuesday.

“We’d conceded six goals in our last two away games, so we had to do something different.

“By hook or by crook, we’ve done it.

“You have to give credit to the players because they took that information on board and they replicate what we do in training, on the pitch.”