COUNTDOWN TO OLD TRAFFORD - TWO DAYS TO GO

LUKE Prosser helped Colchester United battle back to salvage a well-deserved away point – and then turned his attentions immediately to facing Manchester United.

The U’s skipper struck his side’s equaliser in their 2-2 draw at Scunthorpe United, a result which set them up nicely for Wednesday night’s much-anticipated Carabao Cup quarter-final at Old Trafford.

Prosser said: “All focus is now on Man United and we’re all looking forward to it.

“It’s a bit of a free hit and a fantastic day for me personally as captain and leading the boys out, along with family and friends.

“Hopefully, it’ll be a good day out and you never, ever know come 90 minutes – and after penalties maybe again – what can happen.

“We’ve got nothing to lose – it’s Man United at Old Trafford!

“But having come through the previous rounds like we have and beaten the likes of Palace and Spurs, they’ll be a little bit wary of us, don’t worry about that.

“We want to test ourselves against the best players and we want to give a good account of ourselves.

“We’re all just going to thoroughly enjoy it I’m sure – players, fans and family.”

Colchester had fallen 2-0 down at Scunthorpe, following goals from Abs Eisa and Kevin van Veen for the hosts.

But Luke Norris pulled a goal back for the U’s just before the hour, before Prosser swept home their equaliser four minutes to earn John McGreal’s side a draw.

“It’s six games unbeaten in the league now and we’re definitely becoming hard to beat,” said Prosser.

“Would we have got a point like this two or three years ago when I first came here? Probably not.

“It was a good point but we’re a little bit disappointed not to have won.

“With this group of players, we expect a lot from one another.

“Our team spirit gets you points in itself and it’s done that at Scunthorpe and against Salford and hopefully will continue to, for the rest of the season.

“We have a never say die attitude and a lot of good players in that dressing room and you want more from one another.

“If you can take some of the half chances in the first five or ten minutes, it could be game over in the first half away from home.

“We have to be more clinical but we came back from 2-0 down at a tough place against a side that had won their last five matches, we’ll take a point.”

“We started really well and we were actually disappointed not to get a goal in the first ten minutes.

“We haven’t started that great of late especially away from home so to start like that and be unfortunate not to get one or two goals was disappointing.

“We should have dealt with the first goal better but fair play to him (Abs Eisa) because he took the goal well.

“We went in at half-time disappointed, because we’d probably had the better chances in the first half.

“When you come out for the second half, the first ten minutes is massive and obviously they got the goal straight away from poor defending again.

“Listen, it was a good ball and a good run but it’s one of those where we need to stop and defend the cross.

“But I didn’t think we ever looked beaten and going 2-0 down probably gave us all a kick up the backside.

“We got a good goal through Nos’s (Luke Norris’s) good early finish and then Easty (Tom Eastman) never gave up, knocked it down and I managed to keep it down and score.

“We definitely deserved something from the game and if we’re honest, I think we had a lot more ball in the second half and were unfortunate to not go on and get the win.

“It’s not an easy place to come and a draw was probably a fair result, at the end of the day.”

Prosser’s goal scored just after the hour mark was his second of the season and fifth in total, for Colchester.

He added: “It bobbled – I wanted it on the volley if anything as I wanted to keep it down.

“But in the end, I got a good connection and managed to rifle it home.

“It was good and obviously on a personal note, I want to score more goals.

“It got us back into the game and ended up getting us a point, which is good.”