Colchester must wait to find out if they can keep Matthew Taylor.

The City centre half plays the final game of his loan spell with the Essex club at Brentford tomorrow.

Boss Joe Dunne is keen to extend his stay into a second month but Phil Parkinson has not indicated yet whether he is prepared to let his old club do that.

Parkinson said: “I’m talking to Joe about it tomorrow night.

“But Matt’s done well down there. I speak to Joe a lot and I’ve watched a couple of games on DVD to check myself.

“I expected him to do well. It was just one of those scenarios where players miss pre-season and find themselves behind and he just needed to play.”

Taylor has played every game for the U’s and City will be getting a fully match-fit player back at Valley Parade, whenever that should be.

The critics jumped on his poor performance in the JPT fiasco at Hartlepool – a night when nobody emerged with any credit – but Parkinson has full confidence in the former Charlton defender.

He added: “The Hartlepool game was a bit of a shock for Matt in terms of the work he needed. But in fairness to him, the first he played (for Colch-ester) against Crawley – which I’ve obviously watched this week – was a man of the match performance.

“But that doesn’t come as a surprise because he’s a good player and we know that.”