Frank Nouble is gearing himself up for the “business-end of the season,” and helping Colchester United to achieve their ultimate goal of promotion to League One.
Attacker Nouble has played more minutes than any other U’s team-mate, during the first two thirds of the campaign, and he shows no signs of letting up.
In fact, he has not missed any of the U’s 32 league fixtures, starting all 32. His only respite has been during the odd cup tie.
“It’s all revving up well,” enthused Nouble.
“It’s getting to the business end of the season, when you start making your money.
“Mentally, we are in a good position, and we just have to kick on now.
“I’m looking forward to the weekend. It’s another tough game, away from home, and in a way it’s frustrating that we haven’t had any Tuesday games lately, because we have picked up our form and we can’t wait for each weekend.
“The league table is beginning to take shape now. There aren’t many teams with games in hand anymore, and we have most of our players fit, so we are fighting for places in the side,” added Nouble.
Tomorrow’s hosts Macclesfield Town have enjoyed a resurgence under manager Sol Campbell, but they remain deep in relegation trouble at the wrong end of the table.
The Silkmen are second-from-bottom, three points clear of basement dwellers Notts County and just one point adrift of safety – and third-from-bottom Morecambe.
That represents a big improvement on a few months ago.
The Moss Rose club only managed seven points from their first 18 fixtures, but they recorded back-to-back victories, against Yeovil and Exeter, just before ex-England, Tottenham and Arsenal centre-half Campbell officially took over the managerial reins.
“Macclesfield have picked up, but they are still battling near the bottom of the league,” continued ex-Ipswich Town forward Nouble.
“Nothing is settled yet. Sol Campbell is a young manager who has been trying to improve them, and he’s done well, but they are still down there for a reason.
“It’s not over-complicated. We have done better than them over the course of the season, which is why we find ourselves high up the league.
“We are looking for a strong finish, and I think a top-three finish should still be the target of most teams in the top eight at the moment.
“We have set some high standards, and we’ve won our last two, but we haven’t managed to win three in a row in the league this season, which is something we want to do.”
Nouble has been operating as a centre forward for the last couple of games, which have yielded two wins and two clean-sheets, a 4-0 success at Northampton Town and a 3-0 home success over Cheltenham Town.
But the 27-year-old has spent most of this campaign operating on the flank, rather than in a central position.
He boosted his goal-tally to six goals, from 35 league and cup outings, with goals against the Cobblers and also against the Robins, both deadly finishes.
“I don’t tend to ever score tap-ins,” rued Nouble.
“They usually have to be good strikes, or good moves, while Szmods (Sammie Szmodics) always seems to get the tap-ins and always seems to be scoring the goals.
“I like leading the line. I’m a different sort of player to (Mikael) Mandron or (Luke) Norris.
“I prefer that position to being out wide, because it means that if I beat a player, I’m more likely to be in on goal, with a chance to score.
“But I’ve always been known as an attacking player who can play anywhere across the front-line. I’m not just a centre-forward.
“I want us to finish the job. I certainly don’t see three teams better than us in the league, so I still think we can get into the automatic promotion zone,” concluded Nouble.
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