Colchester United will take on Brentford at the JobServe Community Stadium on Wednesday evening in the second round of the 2024-25 EFL Cup. The hosts narrowly overcame Reading 4-3 on penalties in the first round of the competition, while this will be the visitors' first EFL Cup match of the season.

Brentford will be heavy favourites to win once again this week, but this is a better Colchester side than two years ago. This week's opponents have had some big moments in this competition before. Going back to the 2019/20 season, Colchester got as far as the Carabao Cup quarter-final having defeated Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace on penalties. Their cup run eventually ended at Old Trafford where they went down to a 3-0 defeat.

That season the U’s finished sixth in League Two but couldn't make it past Exeter City in the play-off semi-final. Since then, they have had to worry more about relegation. Yet despite finishing 22nd in the fourth tier last year (just three points ahead of relegated Sutton United), there are better things expected from the Essex club this season – even after a mixed start. With one win and two defeats from their first three League Two games, Colchester are 17th in the league table but their stats so far suggest that may just be temporary.

Danny Cowley's team have the fourth-highest pass success rate in League Two (75.7 per cent) and have the joint-third number of tackles per game on average (19, the same as Harrogate Town). Going forward, the stats are interesting. Colchester average six shots on target per game (no team in League Two has more) but despite that they have scored just four goals so far in the league this season.

But considering Colchester have amassed an xG of 3.85 in the fourth tier so far this season, that tally of four looks to be fairly accurate on average. The attacking intent is certainly there, but the U’s will have to carve out better opportunities in future. Still, Colchester made it to this stage by defeating League One side Reading and shouldn't be underestimated.

The U’s had taken a 2-0 goal lead against the Royals thanks to Tom Hopper's early header for a corner before Jack Payne added from the penalty spot. Payne is one to look out for; the midfielder has already scored two and assisted three in four games so far this season. Brentford will also have to be careful when defending set-pieces, but they may also get some joy from their own. Both of Reading's goals also came from set-pieces. The first was a magnificent strike from Charlie Savage after Colchester failed to defend a corner before Lewis Wing equalised from a direct free-kick on the edge of the area that was curled into the bottom corner.

Ultimately though, penalties again helped Colchester progress and the Bees will know not to underestimate the League Two side, who are certainly capable of causing an upset on their day.

Less than 20 years ago - albeit only for one season - Colchester United were a mid-table Championship club. Last season, they were in danger of dropping out of the Football League altogether and playing in non-league for the first time since 1992. You can take nothing for granted in this game.

The last four years have been a struggle. Between the time John McGreal left after 202 games in the summer of 2020 and January, six permanent managers had been and gone, with the Essex club having finished 20th or below in three of the last four campaigns. Ben Garner oversaw a positive end in 2022/23, after Matt Bloomfield returned to Wycombe to succeed Gareth Ainsworth, and earned the right to remain in charge at the start of last season. But he endured an absolute nightmare, which came to an abrupt end after 13 League Two games - the U's had won three, drawn one and lost nine, leaving them second bottom.

Installed in his place as caretaker and then permanent successor a little under a month later was ex-West Ham United and Stoke City winger Matthew Etherington, who had already been working at the club as U21s coach. He won his first game in charge, with the team showing grit to come back from being pegged back twice to beat Grimsby 3-2. The tide turned relatively quickly, though, as Colchester suffered eight defeats in a run of nine games. Things were, arguably, even bleaker than they had been prior to Garner's departure.

Then Danny Cowley and his brother Nicky returned to their Essex roots to try and get the club out of trouble. On paper, it was a step down as their last job had been trying to bring happier days back to Portsmouth, but they saw an opportunity. "Our parents always encouraged us to run towards a challenge," Cowley told Sky Sports in March.

Soon, they were barely conceding more than once per game, the losses were drying up and the points tally was gradually increasing. In the end, across 20 games, Colchester picked up 22 points and kept their noses above the relegation zone by three points, at the expense of Sutton United and Forest Green Rovers.

The job had been done, the unthinkable had been avoided, and the club could look forward again. With a place in League Two secured, Cowley has overhauled his squad, with 11 new players signed at the time of writing, with four departing on loan and a sizeable group released, which included Cameron McGeehan and veteran John Akinde.

Such significant turnover suggests it might be a while before the squad is firing on all cylinders, but two wins and two defeats from the first four in all competitions is not too bad a return. "We want to try to show the rest of the world - or at least whoever is watching! - exactly how far we've come as a team and a club," said Cowley in his aforementioned interview with Sky Sports.

There is certainly potential for Colchester and with an optimist at the helm, for the first time in half-a-decade, they will be hoping to be looking back towards the top half at the very least.

Danny Cowley started out in football in the late 1980s, as a youngster at Wimbledon's academy, but hopes of making it in professional football were ended when he was not offered a scholarship at the age of 16, having suffered with Osgood-Schlatter disease, which caused him to grow from 5ft to 5ft 11in during his final year at secondary school.

The midfielder dropped into non-league and turned out for the likes of Dagenham and Redbridge, Boreham Wood and Hornchurch, but was forced into retirement at the age of 29 in 2007. Before long, he had joined Concord Rangers as assistant to Danny Scopes - and he stayed there until 2015, managing almost 400 games and earning three promotions. That led to a year in the National League with Braintree, before he was appointed as Lincoln City’s new manager, alongside brother Nicky.

This meant he quit his job as head of PE at FitzWimarc School in Essex, where he had spent 15 years balancing a career in non-league. His time at the LNER Stadium was a resounding success. In three years, he won the National League, League Two and EFL Trophy - as well as a memorable run to the FA Cup quarter-final in 2016/17.

A step up to the Championship with Huddersfield lasted just 10 months, even though Cowley kept the Terriers in the division during a campaign disrupted by Covid. After just under a year out of work, Cowley was appointed as Kenny Jackett's successor at Portsmouth in March 2021. He won six of his first 12 games in charge, but Pompey missed out on a play-off place by two points. They finished 10 points off the pace in his only full season in charge and were sat 12th when he was sacked on 2 January 2023.

In Cowley's statement following his sacking, he said not being able to bring success to Fratton Park "is and will remain one of the biggest disappointments of our lives". It was another year before he was back in football again, and he and Nicky have been back home in Essex and in charge at Colchester since 4 January.

Jon Waldron, Colchester United reporter for the Daily Gazette, explains how Danny Cowley is likely to set up his side on Wednesday evening:

“He is quite flexible with his formations. Looking at what he has done so far, there are going to be three centre-halves, with two wing-backs; Manny Egbo is versatile and is up and down the flank a lot, whereas on the other side, JK Gordon is more of a traditional attacking winger and not so much of a defensive player.

“You will see centre-halves coming over and playing in more of a full-back role at times. Alex Woodyard is the one holding midfielder, with Teddy Bishop and Jack Payne in front of him in a triangle, with Tom Hopper and Samson Tovide the two forwards.

“Lyle Taylor signed in the summer and has not featured yet, but he was signed to start and I would imagine he will start when he is fit, which could be by the time of the Brentford game.”

Last time out v Harrogate Town (3-1-4-2): Macey; Hunt, Flanagan, Iandolo; Woodyard; Egbo, Bishop, Payne, Gordon; Hopper, Tovide

Read our full interview with Jon Waldron here.

Referee: Paul Howard

Assistants: Marc Wilson and Andy Bennett

Fourth official: Ruebyn Ricardo

Paul Howard is set to referee his first Brentford game on Wednesday evening. Howard was the man in the middle for 39 matches last season, predominately in the bottom two tiers of the Football League, showing 143 yellow cards and four reds.

Keane Lewis-Potter netted his maiden Brentford goal on his first start to help send the Bees into the third round of the Carabao Cup, following a 2-0 victory over Colchester United at JobServe Community Stadium. Lewis-Potter opened the scoring just before the break, collecting Shandon Baptiste’s through ball and calmly slotting past Kieran O’Hara.

The home side had their moments after the break, Alex Newby bringing a fine save out of Thomas Strakosha with a late header, but Thomas Frank’s side ensured safe passage to the third round with an injury-time Mads Bech goal.