DESPITE fierce competition for places reaching fever pitch, Frankie Bunn was in bullish mood this week and will be reluctant to make any changes to his side when Athletic take on free-scoring Colchester United in tomorrow’s top-of-the-table Boundary Park clash.

The Latics boss has started with the same 10 outfield players in the two previous games and although he is blessed with a wealth of talent knocking on the door, Bunn won’t be tempted to tweak things too much following last week’s excellent 3-0 victory at Grimsby Town.

He said: “People are champing at the bit to get into the team. The ones with the shirt have to try and keep it, while those without the shirt have to try and take it away.

“We scored three goals and kept a clean sheet last week, so in that respect it’s all coming together nicely. But you can never rest on your laurels and Colchester is the important one now.”

Aside from long-term injury victims Cameron Dummigan and Ousmane Fane – both said to be making good progress – only midfielder Giles Coke looks likely to remain on the sidelines after complaining of soreness in recent weeks.

Frontman Ishmael Miller made his return from the bench at Blundell Park as he continued his way back to full fitness along with Jose Baxter, who was a scoring substitute at Grimsby.

Bunn added: “Ish had been missing for a couple of weeks and he will need time to get up to speed.

“He’s gone a year without playing, he’ll have his ups and downs. We have to be so patient with him because he’s a powerful boy – when he moves, he moves quick. We just need to get a bit of base fitness into him.

“We’ve got a good squad of players and it can be a dilemma to pick a team. But some of the lads have to be patient because we’re all in this together.”

One man who looks certain to keep his place is menacing five-goal top scorer Sam Surridge.

The confident 20-year-old striker, on a season-long loan from Premier League Bournemouth, revealed how he was tasked with responding to a half-time talking to from Bunn at Grimsby before his two well-taken second-half strikes. Surridge said: “The gaffer wasn’t too happy – he had a few words to say, especially to me. He knows he can get more out of me by doing that and it worked.”

Fellow forward Jonathan Benteke didn’t make the squad last week but did play 90 minutes in Tuesday’s eyebrow-raising 7-0 behind-closed-doors defeat at home to Rochdale in the Lancashire Senior Cup first round.

Zeus De La Paz was replaced in goal at half-time by youngster Ewan McFarlane with the score at 3-0.

Baxter played just over an hour, as did Miller. Sam Graham, Jamie Stott, Mohamed Maouche and Tom Hamer were each given a much-needed 90 minutes.

Sixth-placed Latics face a U’s outfit also riding high in the early League Two standings with John McGreal’s men, like Athletic, coming into the game fresh from a 3-0 success last time out.

While Latics triumphed at Grimsby, the former Tranmere Rovers centre-back was guiding in-form Colchester, who sit nicely in fourth, to the same scoreline at home to Cambridge United.

The hotshot U’s – League Two’s top goalscorers – are unbeaten in three after suffering their only league defeat of the season on August 25 – a 2-1 home loss to Northampton.

As a footnote going into tomorrow’s match, Latics haven’t beaten Colchester at Boundary Park in any of their last eight attempts.

Athletic’s last home victory against the Essex side came 12 years ago in 2006 when a last-minute Richard Butcher goal earned a 1-0 League One win.

Time to change that woeful record.