Crawley Town v Colchester United preview: Reds striker could return for Boxing Day clash, and why Lindsey has 'so much respect' for the Cowleys

McKirdy missed the last two games through injury as the Reds drew 2-2 with Oldham Athletic before losing 1-0 at Swindon Town last weekend.

The forward has four goals and three assists in League Two this season and manager Scott Lindsey confirmed he should have the 28-year-old back at his disposal on Friday afternoon.

“Harry McKirdy trained this morning, so he’s likely to be in contention for the next game,” he said.

Colchester are another top-half test for Lindsey’s men. United sit eleventh in League Two after a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Newport County last week.

Ahead of their upcoming clash, Lindsey was full of praise for his opponents in the away dugout.

He said: “From a personal point of view, I’ve got so much respect for the manager Danny Cowley and Nicky Cowley, his brother – the assistant manager. I’ve come across them so many times and it’s always been a feisty affair against them.

“So, I really look forward to that challenge and there's nothing better than a feisty challenge on Boxing Day as well. So, yeah, I really embrace that but I've got so much respect for them and they've done great in the game and [are] doing great. They're having a really good season.”

Back-to-back games at the Broadfield Stadium await the Reds during the busiest schedule of the year with Bromley coming after on December 29.

“I think it’s great to be at home, especially on Boxing Day,” Lindsey said. “We kind of want that real family atmosphere.

“I just think it's always nice when you get that game at home, obviously Christmas Day the day before and you want to kind of don't be travelling too far. I think it's good for the fans as well. They want to probably be at home, don't they?

“I think from a football point of view, we’ve been good at home as well. I think we’re five unbeaten now in the league at home. So, we know that it’s a tough place to come from an opposition point of view, so we’ll take that. That’s the good news.”

Lindsey has been following the recent fortunes of Colchester and was impressed with what he saw.

“The bad news is that we play a really good side,” he said. “They had a real kick in the teeth at Salford a number of weeks ago where they were winning the game 3-2, and then they had a penalty against them to take it to 3-3.

“And then Salford do what Salford did to us and go and win it on the 92nd minute 4-3. So, that was a real kind of hammer blow for them. But they reacted really well and played Newport at home last week and I watched the game and I thought they were excellent. Real good performance from Colchester.”

The Reds boss outlined the style of football that he expects from Boxing Day’s opposition.

“They were a team that want to dominate the ball. They want to play possession football, play through the thirds, fast attacking. In the game, actually, they scored around 30 seconds but it was deemed offside. So, they were really aggressive.

“They create a lot of chances. I think they're one of the highest goal scoring teams in the division as well, believe it or not. So, we know they're going to be [an] attacking threat. We know they've got some real threats but they do want to dominate the ball. So, it should be an interesting game.”

Friday will see Lindsey reunite with players he coached during his time at Swindon including Ellis Iandolo and Jack Payne.

“It’s always nice to see players who have played for you,” he said. “We had Will Wright on the weekend at Swindon. I think he was the first one I went and shook hands with after the game. It's always nice to see players that have done well for you and played for you.

“Ellis is somebody that I brought to Swindon. He was a 17-year-old boy when I brought him up to Swindon and he ended up staying there for God knows how many years. He was the longest serving player in the end.

“Great lad, great family and it'd be good to see him and Jack Payne as well. Top, top lad but a very good player. He'd come on as a substitute on Saturday and he was a real handful. We're hoping that we keep them all quiet.”

Despite falling to defeat at Swindon, the Reds boss was delighted with his side’s performance and felt they deserved more from the game.

However, Lindsey encouraged his players to maintain the standard they set for themselves and avoid any complacency.

“It's going to be a tough game but I believe we're in a good place,” he said. “People may not agree with that in terms of results but trust me, when you see the game from Saturday against Swindon, we were outstanding and how we didn't win that game is beyond me - but we didn't. But we've got to take a lot of encouragement from that performance to go into this next run of games.

“I said to the players this morning, the last time we probably performed as well as that was Gillingham away and the very next game was Accrington at home, and I felt that we had a lull from a really good performance at Gillingham to Accrington.

“Even though we'd done OK in the game, I just felt the performance wasn't the same. So, I'm really asking for the players to get to the same levels as we did on Saturday and if we do that, I'm sure we'll be fine in the game.”

Crawley remain 21st in the table ahead of the Christmas period - a point above Harrogate Town and the relegation zone.