Colchester United business model impresses Mansfield Town boss David Flitcroft

But tomorrow he will be hoping to shoot them down as promotion rivals.

Flitcroft admits Colchester were a big template for his future thinking with the success of their youth policy, one he has adopted at Mansfield.

“I like the way they do things,” he said. “I love the business model and what they have done as a football club, really supporting the academy. It’s thriving and producing players.

“We looked at it very closely when I was at Bury.

“They have a young, dynamic team and a brilliant manager with outstanding core values. You can see that in his team. He knows his way around a game.

“They play with a young energy. They give youth a chance and it’s a clear pathway.

“They have had a really positive, consistent season, but so have we. So it’s a real clash of two good playing styles.

“It’s a real head to head we are looking forward to.”

After two defeats in a row, Stags beat Crawley 1-0 on Tuesday to go back into the top three and Flitcroft said: “The win on Tuesday will give us that bounce at Colchester.

“I won’t lie – there was a disappointment over Saturday’s game because of the expectation levels playing Yeovil.

“But we got a quick chance to avenge that feeling against Crawley, which we did.

“It will be two good teams coming up against each other. They were excellent when we played them at the One Call at the start of the season.”