On-loan Blues forward Armando Dobra scored his first goal of his loan spell at Colchester United last night to see the U’s to a 1-0 Papa John’s Trophy victory over West Ham’s U21s at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Dobra, 20, who was making his second start for the North Essex side in the competition with his only League Two involvement up to now two sub appearances, found the net in the seventh minute and the Albanian U21 international’s goal proved to be enough to win the tie.
”It was a fantastic finish for the goal,” head coach Hayden Mullins told the Colchester Gazette. "It was a well-worked goal and great for Mando [Dobra] to get himself a goal, because he does a lot of work for the team.
"He carries us up the pitch and he's very bright - it was lovely to see him score. We knew that the young attacking lads we played would be nice and bright.
"I thought [Luke] Chambers and [Tom] Eastman were fantastic at the back and they marshalled it really well, along with Brendan [Wiredu] in midfield.
"It was about the character and the tempo. We wanted to attack the game which I felt we did and the first half in particular was very pleasing and it was a good performance.”
The Blues and U’s are in the same group in the Papa John’s Trophy with Town currently sitting in bottom spot ahead of their trip to Gillingham next Tuesday.