By Stuart Roach

Phil Parkinson is one of the league's youngest managers

Football's newest manager has been thrown straight in at the deep end for the ultimate sink or swim challenge.

Yet Colchester boss Phil Parkinson is confident he will not only swim, but that he can don his lifeguard's jacket and drag the U's out of choppy waters.

Suddenly, football is not just about himself anymore.

"I am now responsible for organising a whole team now and mentally preparing a group of players for the game.

"As a player, you only had to worry about preparing yourself," Parkinson told BBC Sport.

"So far I have enjoyed it," he adds, displaying early signs of the masochistic qualities needed by a successful modern manager.

A well-respected player and a fully-qualified coach, Parkinson was bursting with ideas during the two interviews that saw him secure the Colchester job.

But he insists he is more concerned with long-term healing than slapping a plaster on Colchester's ailing season.

I would be a fool to make wholesale changes Phil Parkinson

The signs of recovery have been evident in a four-game unbeaten run since Steve Whitton's sacking.

And Parkinson conceded: "My ideas are for the future. For now, I have to keep the spirit and build on that.

"I am coming in to take over a team that has been on a good run for the last four games, so changes will be gradual.

"I would be a fool to make wholesale changes.

"Short term, my aim is to keep the team in this division and my first goal will be to raise the professionalism of the club."

Parkinson has already enjoyed something of a management fast-track this season.

With Reading manager Alan Pardew recently hit with a three-match touchline ban, pitchside duties fell to rookie coach Parkinson.

PARKINSON'S CAREER DoB: 1 December 1967 Southampton: Apprentice Bury 169 apps Reading 424 apps

The Royals won all three games under his vocal guidance and Parkinson's presence was such that Pardew chose not to return from the stands once his ban had ended.

"I have learned a lot from Alan Pardew at Reading this season and you naturally pick things up from previous managers you have played under.

"Mark McGhee was very influential on my own thinking.

"Alan has raised the professionalism of Reading Football Club to right up there with Premiership clubs."

But Parkinson rejected suggestions that he will immediately return to Reading to sign a clutch of his former team-mates.

"Reading have some good players and I've spoken to Alan Pardew who says he'll consider anything.

"But we're on a good run at the moment and I won't bring players in just because they're my mates. "

Parkinson handed Colchester job

The 35-year-old former Bury and Reading midfielder admits his first week as a football manager has been a whirlwind.

But he cannot wait for Saturday to come.

"I found out I had the job on Sunday and things immediately went mad.

"There is so much to do but I have to discard all that and focus on Saturday's game. Right now, that is all that matters."

And when his first game as a football manager is finally out of the way?

"Then I can concentrate on Tuesday."