IT’s times like these that Colchester United manager John Ward thinks of Barry Fry and Barnet.

The U’s head into today’s game at MK Dons as the only unbeaten side left in League One, but whenever the going has got good for Ward in his managerial career he calls upon a humbling memory.

“In my first management job at York back in 1991 we’d had a bad start but then turned it around and I was starting to think ‘we’re doing okay here’,” said the 59-year-old.

“The next week we played Barry Fry’s Barnet and lost 4-1. After that I kept their pendant from the game and hung it on my office door just to remind me never to think I’d cracked it.

“I’ve had a lot worse runs than this as a manager and I’ve had a little bit better too. We won 15 games on the trot at Carlisle so we’ve still got some way to go if we are going to emulate that.

“I don’t think we need anybody to keep our feet on the floor, but if we did then Dagenham did that to us in the first half on Tuesday night because they were much quicker and better than us.

“If you start thinking you’re doing okay, that’s when the rug gets pulled out from under you.”

– For two-page match preview of MK Dons v Colchester United see today’s EADT. For live match updates, follow Stuart_Watson on www.twitter.com.