Ward will ‘carry no passengers’

COLCHESTER United boss John Ward is happy to go into the new season with a small squad, rather than carry “any passengers.”

The U’s take on Jong FC Utrecht in Holland this lunchtime, in their third pre-season friendly, following last week’s 4-0 win over Maldon & Tiptree and a 3-0 success over Dutch side SDC Putten on Monday.

Ward’s men have been put through their paces in their Dutch training camp throughout this week, and the trip culminates in a game against a young Utrecht side at the National Sports Centre in Zeist (noon kick-off) before the squad returns to England this evening.

Ward has already urged patience in his search for a new striker, to give support to senior front-men Steven Gillespie and Kayode Odejayi, but he is not looking to add to his squad in other departments.

“I have spent a year building up my squad and I am happy with it,” explained Ward.

“I don’t want to mess it up, so there have been no triallists. I don’t like to give false promises to people.

“It’s a smaller squad than we have had before, so I have got to manage it with the rest of the staff. We need to give them a bit of protection.

“At the minute, it’s only a striker that I am after, because I think the squad is nicely balanced. If they are all fit, then there is a good competitive nature in there.

“I don’t mind a small squad, and I don’t want to carry passengers. At the moment we haven’t got passengers.

“I don’t want an over-sized squad, I can add to that with loans if I need to,” added Ward.

Defender Magnus Okuonghae featured for the first time in pre-season against SDC Putten, following an operation on his ankle in February, while Matt Heath and Andy Bond also played after missing the Maldon fixture due to niggling injuries.

John-Joe O’Toole (carrying a knock), Ashley Vincent (sore back) and keeper Ben Williams (illness) all missed the SDC Putten clash, but should come back into contention today.