The U’s will be bidding to halt a run of two straight defeats, following a 3-2 home loss to Mansfield and a 2-1 defeat at Crewe, when they travel to lower mid-table Northampton Town this afternoon.

The U’s will be bidding to halt a run of two straight defeats, following a 3-2 home loss to Mansfield and a 2-1 defeat at Crewe, when they travel to lower mid-table Northampton today.

This has been the first time this season that the U’s have suffered back-to-back losses in League Two, and as a consequence they have slid out of the top seven.

However, the Essex club welcomed three new arrivals this week, in the shape of midfielder Ben Stevenson, winger Abo Eisa and attacker Callum Roberts.

Stevenson signed on a two-and-a-year deal on Tuesday, while Eisa arrived on the same day, on loan from Shrewsbury Town.

Winger/attacking midfielder Roberts put pen to paper on deadline day on Thursday, moving from Newcastle United on loan until the end of the season.

Manager John McGreal looks set to blood all three new recruits at Sixfields today, either from the start or from the bench.

And just as important this week was that no players left the club – there had been fears that leading scorer Sammie Szmodics might be on his way before the transfer window shut on Thursday night.

“It’s been a big week,” enthused McGreal. “I’m delighted with the new signings we have made, and that’s been thanks to a lot of hard work behind the scenes by the chairman (Robbie Cowling) and recruitment (headed by Director of Football, Tony Humes).

“Callum (Roberts) was on the bench the other night for Newcastle United (2-1 win over Manchester City), and scored in the FA Cup (against Blackburn) recently. He will give us something different, which is something we felt that we needed up top, because our strikers have played a lot of games.

“Callum has played in Scotland (for Kilmarnock) as well, so he comes to us with a reputation. It’s a big plus, for us to bring a player of his calibre into our league.

“It’s great to get all three new players on board. We put in offers for Abo (Eisa) while he was playing non-league, but at the time Shrewsbury were pushing to get into the Championship.

“He’s still a big part of Shrewsbury’s plans, and they made sure he signed a new contract before coming on loan to us.

“And we had been chasing Ben (Stevenson) for a number of months. He was excellent for us on loan last season, and he can play in three or four positions across the midfield,” added McGreal.