Colchester United left it late to launch their play-off surge in League Two, last season.

And although only a quarter of the current campaign has elapsed, the U’s might well require a similar rise up the table again if they are to challenge for a top-seven finish.

At the very same point last time around, after 13 games, Colchester were in a very similar position to the one they find themselves now.

They had acquired 16 points by the same stage, a point more than they have now but with exactly the same number of wins on the board, with four victories to their name.

Like the first half of last season, John McGreal’s side are finding it tough to build the momentum required to challenge in the top half of the table.

Inconsistency is common among young players at all levels, which might go some way to explaining the unpredictability of Colchester’s patchy form so far this season.

The fact that the U’s have not recorded three league wins in a row in 2017 says much about the fact that while they undoubtedly show promise, at present they are unable to build the kind of run needed for them to be regarded as a serious promotion candidate in League Two.

Such a stark variation in form is encapsulated in Colchester’s last two matches.

While their performance in beating Mansfield Town, one of the fancied teams in the division, bore all of the characteristics of a team capable of challenging near the top, their display just seven days later against Carlisle United was much less impressive.

It was flat on the pitch on Saturday and flat off it, too; too many U’s players had average games.

“I don’t think the boys were really at it 100 per cent and that’s obviously down to us,” admitted Colchester’s stand-in skipper Frankie Kent.

The defender knows that they will have to raise their game tomorrow night if they are to take something meaningful from their trip to Newport County, who have won four of their last five league games and are unbeaten at home so far, this season.