Nathaniel Knight-Percival feeling positive for survival fight

Town return to League One action at basement side Colchester on Saturday with Micky Mellon's side looking to climb out of the relegation zone after Fleetwood's 2-1 win over Scunthorpe put them back in the bottom four.

The Cod Army were unable to climb further away from the Shrews when they lost 1-0 at Rochdale on Tuesday night, although Oldham went within a point of Town by surprisingly winning 2-1 at Peterborough. Knight-Percival is confident he and his team-mates are re-focused on survival after the magic of their Cup run.

"It's back to the bread and butter at Colchester, but we're feeling positive," said the skipper.

"It was a great experience and we enjoyed the night, but it's over now and the Cup has gone so it's back to concentrating on the league.

"We'll be ready to go for the Colchester game. That's what it's all about – getting back into playing league games and picking up points.

"I think the lads will definitely be OK focusing on that."

Knight-Percival only got to play 45 minutes against United after he was withdrawn at half-time for tactical reasons when Mellon decided to change to a 4-4-2 formation from 3-5-2 to try to get back into the game at 2-0 down.

And with the Colchester clash kicking off a spell of three games in eight days, with the visit of Rochdale next Tuesday and a trip to Doncaster the following Saturday, the former Peterborough stopper hinted he will benefit for the extra rest.

"I came off at half-time and that was tactical, but we've got a run of games coming up and the league matches are more important than one-off cup ties," he said.

Meanwhile, Knight-Percival admitted his part in United's first goal after Chris Smalling's angled shot looped up off him to divert past Jayson Leutwiler.

"It took a bit of a deflection off me which took it over Jayson," he said.

"It was backs against the wall. It can happen when you're playing a side of that class."