'Football romantic' Cowley hopes for play-off spot

Danny Cowley has been in charge of Colchester since January 2024

Colchester United boss Danny Cowley hopes his good final-day record can help to conjure up a place in the League Two play-offs.

The U's are 10th following defeats in their past two games, but only two points below Salford City, who are seventh.

They must beat Barrow on Saturday and hope none of Salford, Grimsby Town or Chesterfield are victorious in their games.

"I'm a football romantic so I always believe anything is possible, for sure," Cowley told BBC Essex Sport.

"We've had some good moments last day of the season - in my first-ever season at Concord Rangers, Essex Senior League, there were three of us that could all win the league and we won 1-0, that was a good memory.

"At Maldon & Tiptree we won to get into the play-offs, we'd come from nowhere in our first season in Ryman Division One North."

Cowley also tasted success at Braintree, who beat Wrexham in their penultimate game to get into the National League play-off places and managed to hang on by beating Altrincham in their final game.

He added: "At Lincoln, last game of the season, we drew with Yeovil to get into the play-offs in our first season back in League Two. Great day that was."

The final day has not always been positive for Cowley, though, as his Portsmouth side lost to Accrington at home in front of an empty stadium because of Covid in 2021, allowing Oxford United to claim the final League One play-off spot.

"Football works in mysterious ways and I'm hoping it will turn the other way for us this time around," said Cowley.

Losses at Doncaster Rovers and Salford City saw Colchester slip from seventh place, which they must now reclaim to have a chance of returning to League One for the first time since 2016.

Defender Ellis Iandolo said, however, that negative results throughout the season had made the players work even harder.

"Anything can happen in this league, we're going to do our best to try to get things done on Saturday and hope for the best," he told BBC Essex Sport.

"Naturally as a player you look at the league, look at the fixtures and play different scenarios out in your head but ultimately we know we can only do what we can do.

"That is us working as hard as we can to get ourselves in the best shape possible and put a good performance on and I think we deserve that as a group."