Midfielder Tom Lapslie sees no reason why Colchester United cannot win their final four home games of the season, to bolster their hopes of gate-crashing the League Two play-offs.

John McGreal’s men have won nine of their last 11 home matches, to keep the Essex club in the hunt for a top-seven berth, despite a terrible recent away record that has yielded no wins and just three points from a possible 24 since the turn of the year.

In fact, the U’s last victims on the road – Stevenage by a 4-2 scoreline on New Year’s Eve – are this afternoon’s visitors to the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

A league double beckons, therefore, if the U’s can topple fourth-placed Boro, who are nursing slender hopes of breaking into the top-three automatic promotion places.

“Our aim is to win our last four home games, and pick up a few points away from home,” insisted Lapslie.

“We have two big games coming up, against Stevenage and Doncaster (Good Friday), and we’ll be looking to get six points out of six.

“They are both going well, but then we are feeling pretty confident because we have beaten teams like Carlisle (4-1 win on January 7) and Luton (2-1 in last home outing), who both came to ours on the back of good runs.

“So we don’t mind who turns up. We feel that we can beat anyone at home, and we will be looking to take our form from the Luton match into this weekend.

“We have made our ground a bit of a fortress, though it’s a shame we haven’t been able to do as well away from home. But at least we are giving our home fans something to cheer about.

“We have the second best home record (12 wins from 19 games) behind Doncaster (13 wins from 20 games), so we’re almost on level terms with Doncaster, who are running away with the league.

“Teams know that they have to be at their best to get anything from us, and we will be putting early pressure on Stevenage to try and get a goal and get on the front foot.

“We managed that against the likes of Wycombe, Mansfield and Luton, and have then defended well late on in games,” added Lapslie, who has been a consistent performer this season, featuring in 32 of the U’s 40 league games in the middle of the park.