MARK Hughes is poised for a Colchester shake-up after City’s Good Friday exertions.

The Bantams chief was pleased with the way his side matched another play-off contender in the 1-1 draw with Tranmere.

But having played two thirds of the game down to 10 men, he is expecting to make changes for tomorrow’s trip to Essex with the short Easter turn-around.

Hughes said: “It’s a difficult game, particularly given the circumstances we’ve just gone through.

“We’ve got a long trip down the motorway and just have to make sure we recover well enough. We’ll check on them all.

“We’ll probably have to freshen up the team because of the shift that a lot of them have put in. But we’ve got numbers to do that so we’ll be okay.”

Several of the players not involved on Friday were put through a pre-match fitness session at Valley Parade. Levi Sutton has a chance of returning from his hernia-type injury but Hughes will not risk him if he does not have to.

“Levi could come into it. He’s fit but I don’t like to throw players straight back in.

“He’s had one full day of training since his injury so it might be, if we can avoid it, we can keep him until the weekend. If needs must, then he’s available.

“We’re one down with Elliot Watt being out but I think there were eight players who weren’t in the 18 on Friday. They obviously come into my thoughts.”

Watt sits out a one-game ban for his red card which could mean a quick recall to the starting line-up for Gareth Evans, who would be making his 600th career appearance.

Referee Carl Boyeson came in for criticism at Valley Parade after Watt’s dismissal. Hughes feels there is not enough consistency with lower-league officials.

“At times, maybe the officials allow a little bit too much to go,” he said.

“Then when they do pull something up, that becomes a problem for them because that antagonises the crowd. We’re talking about that consistency level again.

“You’d rather that they’d consistently pull up foul play in certain situations. It’s when sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t that football people get frustrated.”

Colchester are still not completely safe from relegation although the 20th-placed U’s have an eight-point advantage over Oldham in the drop zone.

It marks the first time since Hughes took charge of the Bantams that they have faced a team below them in the table.

Hughes said: “It hasn’t been easy but I think we’ve acquitted ourselves really well against all these teams pushing towards the top.

“Very few have really looked a level above us. I think we’ve more than matched them and probably bettered them if you pick out all the good performances.

“We’ve been better in the majority of the games which is encouraging for us building for next year.”