Matthew Etherington: Colchester United interim head coach awaits permanent role decision
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Colchester's only defeat under Matthew Etherington came at Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup
Interim Colchester United head coach Matthew Etherington hopes his position will be clarified following Saturday's home game against Sutton United.
Etherington stepped up from his role as Under-21s boss after Ben Garner was sacked on 21 October.
Since then Colchester have won three out of three in the league and have moved up five places to 18th.
"After the weekend, I think there'll be some clarity around it, in what way, I don't know," he told BBC Essex Sport.
"The conversation at the start was 'Let's get to Sutton and go from there.'
"If I have to go back to the 21s, I'll happily do it. If they offer me the chance to take the [first-team] role on, of course I'll do it, I'd love to.
"At the minute, I'm just taking the Sutton game, concentrating on that - there'll probably be some talks after the game on Saturday."
Etherington's spell as interim head coach was interrupted by a contract dispute with former club Crawley Town, which meant Scott Marshall was in charge on the bench for the win at Accrington Stanley on 28 October.
The Sussex club, who Etherington managed for 32 days before resigning last December, claimed he is still under contract to them.
But U's owner Robbie Cowling said at the end of last month: "Following a thorough review of the contract and the events that transpired during the 10 months since Matty's departure from Crawley, I have made the decision to reinstate Matty as our first team's interim head coach with immediate effect."
Etherington has been impressed by the character shown by his team since he was put in charge.
"We've given ourselves a bit of daylight now [in the league] but a couple of defeats and that can all change," he said.
"We know exactly where we're at, we're not getting carried away by any stretch, but another win against Sutton on Saturday, the situation's going to start to look a little bit better - definitely.
"I had a brief chat with some of the senior players about various things. There's a level-headedness about the group because there's been some difficult times so far this season, they reflect on the pain from those difficult times and don't want to go back to that point."