Bantwe with Burns with Colchester United Supporters Association chairman Jon Burns

THE clamour for Carabao Cup tickets has gripped the U’s fans this week.

It sounds like there will be a very strong turnout of Colchester people at Crawley cheering the lads on during one of their biggest games for many a year.

That’s fantastic news and further to that, I'm also very pleased that we are already into our fifth coach for the trip.

It should be a cracking evening on October 29 and just imagine actually winning the game and the potential opponents in the next round.

Maybe only then will the U’s get the national plaudits that it deserves after removing two Premier League sides from the cup already.

I do feel that had this been the FA Cup, the attention would have been much greater.

Perhaps that’s the way to do it? A little bit under the radar, much like some of the top players we have at the club, when the mind boggles as to why they haven’t been snaffled up for the leagues above.

I said last week that the U’s would need a degree of grunt against Stevenage last Saturday and they certainly did.

It’s always a difficult affair when the U’s have to play a bottom-dwelling team.

That said, not so many seasons ago, we would have been soundly beaten after a dour 90-minute performance in these sort of games.

That is why, even after such a poor first half, the comeback and end result was a real plus for me.

If I'm honest, I'm not sure that starting Nouble, Norris and Robinson worked as planned.

Stevenage were retaining the ball too easily for my liking because at times, it looked liked we had four up front, including the exciting Poku, leaving loads of space behind them for only Stevenson and Comley to look after.

On the positive side, the double substitution breathed new life into the team just at the right time and that helped Nouble effectively win us the game.

Three points, thank you very much and now the U's are knocking on the door of the play-off places ahead of Crawley Part One tomorrow afternoon.

We were almost through the door of the EFL Trophy group stage, on Tuesday night.

Could have and probably should have won it in normal time, and the penalty shoot-out was sadly a bridge too far for us on this occasion.

The U's played well though against the Spurs youngsters and if they avoid defeat at home against Ipswich on November 12, then it will be happy days.

A lot to happen on the pitch before then though and to start things off, a nice little psychological advantage at Crawley tomorrow would be brilliant.

Good luck U's, thanks for your support and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.