COLCHESTER United boss John Ward had a message for former U’s midfield favourite Dean Hammond today – try and mark Andy Bond if you can.

Ward’s acquisition of Bond from non-league side Barrow has proved to be one of the shrewdest bits of business of the entire summer, with the 25-year-old free transfer having scored four goals in six League One games from midfield so far.

The U’s face Southampton at St Mary’s this afternoon and it will almost certainly be the job of Hammond to contain the man who has finally filled his void as a genuine box-to-box midfielder at The Weston Homes Community Stadium.

And while Ward knows that Bond is quickly losing his secret weapon tag, he is backing his man to keep up his supreme form even if he does start coming in for some special treatment.

He said: “I imagine he will start getting a bit of attention from people on the pitch, but how do you mark him? You’ve got to have someone with a bit of power who is prepared to run for 95 minutes which is very difficult to do.

“And even if Andy does take some extra attention then hopefully the opposition might slip up on one or two other of our players.

“Andy is quite rightly taking the plaudits, but the likes of David Mooney, Anthony Wordsworth and Ian Henderson have shown they have got goals in them too.”

- Full match preview in today’s EADT. For match updates from St Mary’s follow Stuart_Watson at www.twitter.com.