Since that postponement, the sides have faced each other in the Papa John’s Trophy, with Sutton winning 2-1, although U’s were holding on at the end as Colchester pressed for an equaliser. It was Sutton’s second win over the Essex U’s this season following a 3-1 success at the Jobserve Community Stadium in October.

Since the Papa John’s meeting Colchester have added to their squad, signing defender Tom Dallison on a permanent deal, and loaning midfielder Emyr Huws from Ipswich and striker Corie Andrews from Wimbledon before also signing winger Owura Edwards on loan from Bristol City this week, and they will hope those signings arrest a slide that has seen them go six games without a win and suffer four successive defeats, most recently at home to Barrow on Saturday, and they now have only Scunthorpe and Oldham below them in the league. Their last away league win came in the reverse fixture against Barrow in mid-September, nine games ago.

Sutton rescued a point at Stevenage in thrilling fashion on Saturday, and hope that Omar Bugiel, who picked up a slight knock in training last week and missed that game, could be fit to return to the line-up for the first of three home games at the VBS in the space of a week.

Tonight’s referee, taking charge of a Sutton match for the first time, is Robert Lewis from Shropshire, an experienced official who has been on the Football League list since 2005.

Tickets that were bought for the original game in December remain valid tonight, and anyone who doesn’t have a ticket can buy one on line here, or at the ground on Tuesday evening, although as always we would recommend early arrival if you do decide to wait until then to buy your ticket. A match programme, newly printed for tonight’s game, is available on line here and will be on sale around the ground tonight. We also still have a few copies of the double programme that covered the original game and also the Exeter game here, or on sale at the club shop tonight.

Live audio commentary is available tonight through our iFollow service, and anyone without a valid monthly or seasonal pass can buy a match pass for £2.50 here.