Colchester United manager, Joe Dunne, is unlikely to make too many changes from last weekend’s opening day 1-0 win at Gillingham, for tomorrow’s visit of Port Vale.

The Dubliner did make three changes for the Capital One Cup defeat to Peterbrough, with the inclusion of Andy Bond, Alex Gilbey and Clinton Morrison.

But, with the exception of one position, Dunne will almost certainly revert to the team that so impressed at Priestfield, in terms of the performance as well as the result.

Marcus Bean is the one concern. The ex-Brentford 28-year-old was on-song against the Gills, in the heart of central midfield alongside Craig Eastmond, but he has been laid low during the first half of this week with a virus.

Bean was back at the club’s training headquarters, at Tiptree’s Florence Park, for yesterday’s session, but his progress will be closely monitored ahead of the game against Micky Adams’ Valiants.

“Marcus (Bean) had recovered from an earlier virus, to play at Gillingham,” revealed manager Dunne.

“But he was not really 100%, and the Gillingham game took it out of him. The virus came back, but we will see how he does in training.

“I am expecting Port Vale to be a difficult side to break down. As with all of Micky Adams’ teams, they are very well organised and extremely hard-working.

“Yet we showed our resilience at Gillingham, and I know that we can open up teams. We have to stick to our philisophy and persevere.

“I have certainly not sat around worrying about Tuesday night’s defeat (5-1 to Peterborough). I don’t believe that was a 5-1 game.

“I think for three-quarters of that game we got it right, though of course the final result says that I got it wrong,” added Dunne.

The one other change that Dunne might consider is handing Sanchez Watt his first start of the campaign.

The ex-Arsenal winger missed the win at Gillingham, due to a leg injury, and only appeared for the final 25 minutes against Posh. However, the odds are that Watt will again start on the bench.