Blues forward Armando Dobra said scoring his first goal for Colchester in their 1-0 Papa John's Trophy victory over West Ham's U21s last night was a proud moment.
Dobra netted in the seventh minute as he again impressed for the League Two side, who he joined on loan for the season just prior to the transfer window closing.
"I haven't scored in a while and to get that first goal was a very proud moment for me,” the 20-year-old told the Colchester Gazette.
"I saw the keeper come out and I thought I'd just dink it over him, so I'm really happy. I hope I can get many more for the team.”
Dobra hopes his performance and goal will put him in head coach Hayden Mullins’s thoughts for a start in his League Two side, the Albanian U21 international having made only two sub appearances so far in addition to two starts in the Papa John’s Trophy.
"I want to show the gaffer what I can do in these games and play as well as I can to give him a problem for the league games," he said.
"The manager has helped me a lot since I've come in and I'm really happy that he gave me the 90 minutes to show what I can do.
"I like attacking but if the team needs me to defend, then I'm there to do that too.
"I'm there to put my body on the line, like everyone else has to do from the backline to midfield and up top as well.”
Reflecting on the victory, Colchester’s first in the competition this season following a 1-0 defeat to Gillingham in their first fixture, Dobra added: "It was good to get a home win and a clean sheet as well.
"We drew last weekend and followed that up with a win, so that gives us a boost going into Saturday [when Salford visit] to get another win here.
"Our home form is really important; our away form is really good so if we can do that with our home form as well, we'll be right up there. It's good to get three points in the competition.
"I thought we were very good in the first half but you also have to do the ugly side of the game.
"When we're under the cosh, you have to defend as a team and I thought we did that really well.
"Even in the second half, we had chances to kill the game on the counter-attack. Overall, I think we played really well.”
Colchester are currently third in the group which also includes Town, who are bottom ahead of their trip to Gillingham next Tuesday.