UNDER-soil heating and only light snowfall should ensure that Colchester United's away fixture at Barnsley survives the cold snap tomorrow.Geraint Williams' men will travel up to south Yorkshire this morning, looking to translate their terrific home form into some joy on the road.

By Carl Marston

UNDER-soil heating and only light snowfall should ensure that Colchester United's away fixture at Barnsley survives the cold snap tomorrow.

Geraint Williams' men will travel up to south Yorkshire this morning, looking to translate their terrific home form into some joy on the road.

The U's have only recorded a couple of wins from 17 league and cup away fixtures this term, but if they could record a third at Oakwell tomorrow, then they would be in the mix for the play-off battle.

Richard Garcia is again set to miss out, due to a thigh strain that has sidelined him for the back-to-back home matches against Preston (1-0 win) and Birmingham (1-1 draw).

Garcia was intending to return to training yesterday, but that session was cancelled due to the bad weather - the players followed their own fitness regimes instead.

At the start of the season, the U's chief aim was to retain their Championship status. To achieve that end, they needed to finish at least fourth-from-bottom, with a total of around 51 points.

A win at Barnsley would see them reach that 51 points target, with 14 games still to play. But manager Williams is not thinking about targets.

“I don't see it in that way. I didn't set any targets at the start of the season, and we were still on zero points after the first four games!” said Williams last night.

“Barnsley beat us at home earlier in the season, so we know that we're going to have a hard game. We saw them play at Cardiff in their last match, which they were unlucky to lose 2-0.

“They have a new manager, in Simon Davey. I went on the same course as him, and I know that he's very ambitious,” added Williams.

The U's are currently ninth in the table, just four points adrift of the play-offs.