COLCHESTER United boss John Ward is expecting a few of his players to suggest that they don’t need to train on the day before a match.

COLCHESTER United boss John Ward is expecting a few of his players to suggest that they don’t need to train on the day before a match.

The U’s planned training session at Leeds last Friday afternoon, before the weekend game at Hartlepool, was cancelled due to congestion on the A1.

And yet Ward’s men, despite the loss of a training session, still ended up easing to a comfortable 1-0 win at strugglers Hartlepool, thanks to Anthony Wordsworth’s 36th minute winner at Victoria Park.

“I’m waiting for the first player to come up to me and say we don’t need to train on a Friday!” joked Ward.

“We got held up in the traffic and there were people hurt in that accident.

“We had to miss the training session that we had planned at Leeds United, and instead get up to Hartlepool.

“But we just had to get on with it. The preparation continued but we were just unable to get off the coach unfortunately.”

Ward was delighted with his team’s display in the north-east. They are now up to 10th in the League One table.

“We had lots of energy,” continued Ward.

“We knew that if we gave Hartlepool an early shout, the pressure might be released for them (club record eight home defeats), which it was for us the previous week with our early goal (in the 4-1 win over Bury).

“I was pleased with our first quarter-of-an-hour, showing we just hadn’t come to defend.”