Colchester boss Aidy Boothroyd doesn't mind admitting that he loves an underdog: his CV proves that. Boothroyd took unfashionable Watford into the Premier League in 2006, beating mighty Leeds in a play-off final, and has now taken his inimitable management style to Colchester, where he is spearheading another legitimate promotion chase.

Colchester boss Aidy Boothroyd doesn't mind admitting that he loves an underdog: his CV proves that.

Boothroyd took unfashionable Watford into the Premier League in 2006, beating mighty Leeds in a play-off final, and has now taken his inimitable management style to Colchester, where he is spearheading another legitimate promotion chase.

'I do think there are a lot of similarities between here and Watford,' he said.

'I think at Watford we were the underdogs. We had the fifth lowest budget in the Championship when we got up - but we haven't got the fifth lowest budget here, we're about mid-table in League One - and we had a group of people that worked very hard for each other, that knew what was expected of them, that respected each other and didn't get too excited when we won and we just believed that we could win - and we did.

'We managed to get up against a giant, and I still remember that day when I turned on the TV or read the papers and it was going to be a Leeds win - Leeds got wiped away.

'That sort of David and Goliath mentality, the underdogs, I think the British public loves an underdog - and I certainly do.'

Boothroyd insists that Leeds, Norwich and Charlton - the three teams above his in the league - are the big boys of the division.

'When I was at Leeds I remember being on a pre-season tour there and we stayed at a place that was 220 nautical miles away from the North Pole - and 25 Leeds fans met us off the plane,' he said. 'That surprised me.

'Norwich, they're everywhere - everywhere you go it is like a little part of England, a little enclave, and that has its strengths and its weaknesses, but they are so passionate about their football. Like Newcastle fans, it is a religion for Norwich people.

'The club is an integral part, like Bayern Munich is in Germany, an integral part of the area, and that's why they are bigger clubs.

'We are surrounded by Ipswich, Norwich, West Ham, the London clubs and we are creating our own little bit of history. We are shaking a few feathers and upsetting one or two because we are doing what we shouldn't be doing.'