Colchester United’s struggle for goals is costing them dear this season.

The U’s have already played 13 league and cup games, and yet only scored more than one goal in one of them.

They will hope to rectify that poor record away at Brentford tomorrow afternoon, a place they have only won once in their last 17 league visits.

With the exception of last month’s 2-2 draw at Bradford City, the U’s have either managed just one goal, or failed to score, in the other dozen fixtures.

Fortunately, a relatively miserly defence is keeping the U’s in mid-table, rather than wallowing in the League One relegation zone – they have drawn six of their 11 league fixtures, and lost just three of them.

Despite this dearth of goals, manager Joe Dunne insists that he is not going to abandon his side’s style of play.

There will be no switch to a 4-4-2 formation, or a new tendency to strike the ball long in the direction of target man Jabo Ibehre.

“We need to turn these draws into wins, and we can’t keep relying on our defence, which has been very solid. We need the second goal,” explained Dunne.

“They’ll be arguments about 4-4-2 now, and who should be playing up front with Jabo.

“But if we start playing 4-4-2 with a directness to our play, then we will lose all our best young players.

“I am going to persevere with what I believe in,” added Dunne.

The U’s have mustered just 10 goals from 11 league games (the joint third worst in the division), but they have only conceded 14 at the other end.

Dunne continued: “I thought our back four were magnificent against Walsall (1-1 draw last weekend). Generally, we defended very well.

“When we are not going to score goals, it’s vital to stay tight at the back. But the defence now need that break, so we need to get that second goal.

“We’ve got some very young players in the team and it would be foolish of me to hand out heavy rollickings. We need to focus on how we can win games, rather than focus on the negatives.

“We are more resilient this season. Take the Wolves (3-0 defeat) game out of the equation, and I think we’re pretty miserly, but we need more goals.

“We need to win at home, I accept that. We need to win games.”

Following tomorrow’s trip to Griffin Park, the U’s are on theit travels again at Shrewsbury next Tuesday evening.