COLCHESTER United’s under-23s manager Wayne Brown feels Braintree Town are a good fit for young up-an-coming players who the U’s want to place out on loan deals.

Diaz Wright is the latest U’s player to head to the Iron on loan and Brown was in the stands to keep an eye on the midfielder as he made an impressive debut in the 2-2 draw with Wealdstone last weekend.

The Colchester coach said he hopes Wright can follow in the footsteps of Sammie Szmodics and George Elokobi, who went on to have first-team Colchester success after loan spells at Braintree.

And he feels the Iron are an ideal club to send players to from the League Two side.

“Ultimately, we want to get players in our first team and sometimes, if their pathway is blocked a bit by other players doing well in their position, we try to get them out on loan,” said Brown “That gives them first-team experience so we can then get them into our first-team.

“Braintree are definitely a club we can work with for loan players.

“It’s a bonus that they are local.

“They are on the doorstep for Colchester and are playing at a decent level.

“Conference South is certainly somewhere where we want to put our lads as it’s only two levels below our first team.

“Our lads are being really tested and it does give them that bit of real world football.

“We have had opportunities to get Diaz out before, but they weren’t really the right moves.

“They weren’t necessarily at teams who play a great deal of football, which wouldn’t suit Diaz, so we need to be choosy with the type of club that we send him to. It needs to be where benefits him the most and the style of football that Braintree try and play does suit him.”

Brown added that he hopes Wright, who has also had a loan spell with Bostik League premier division side Needham Market this season, can profit from his experience at Braintree and be pushing for first-team action when he returns.

“Getting him back in for the first team is very much the aim,” said Brown.

“Next year, hopefully he’ll be back in and around the first team.

“If not, because there are other players who are in his pathway, then we’ll obviously look to get him out again.”