Colchester United look very well-placed to mount a serious promotion challenge during the second half of this season.

East Anglian Daily Times: Ryan Inniss and Sean Raggett get physical as they battle for the ball during the U's 1-0 win over Lincoln on Tuesday night. Picture: STEVE WALLERRyan Inniss and Sean Raggett get physical as they battle for the ball during the U's 1-0 win over Lincoln on Tuesday night. Picture: STEVE WALLER (Image: � Copyright Stephen Waller)

The U’s are up to ninth in the League Two table, and are only two points adrift of the play-off zone, following Tuesday night’s hard-earned 1-0 home win over Lincoln City.

John McGreal’s men are one of the in-form teams in the division, with just one defeat in their last 10 league games and 21 points accrued from a possible 30.

They have also kept six clean-sheets in their last nine league fixtures. That is promotion form.

Furthermore, several of their long-term injury victims are making good progress towards a possible return to action in the coming weeks, so the U’s look very well-equipped going into the new year.

“You’d like to think that we could mount a challenge this season,” admitted McGreal.

“We’ve got another tough game on Saturday, away at a team (Notts County) are were the league leaders before Tuesday’s games.

“Then we do not have a game for a couple of weeks, during which you’re hoping that Sean Murray and people like that will be back available.

“We know that Pross (Luke Prosser) is now on the training field, and is doing particularly well.

“As for (Brennan) Dickenson – we are now hoping he will be in-and-around in the new year. He is also doing particularly well.

“Kurtis Guthrie is nearly back on the training pitch as well, so we’ve got big players coming back in.

“We’ve just got to keep it going at the minute. It’s very good at the moment, but we are only 19 games into the season.

We had a poor start to the season, but we have regrouped and we now look a difficult team to beat. We’ve just got to work more on the final attacking third,” added McGreal.

Centre-half Prosser, the club skipper, had been out of action for more than a year (since November 5, 2016) with a knee injury, while front-runner Guthrie has struggled to get back from an ankle injury incurred last March.

Left-sided specialist Dickenson, the U’s leading scorer last term (12 goals), has been sidelined by a knee injury for the last eight months but is targeting a return in the new year.