Mikael Mandron became the second Colchester United player of the season to reach double figures, with his crisp finish in Saturday’s 1-0 victory at Stevenage.

The 23-year-old fired home on 27 minutes, from Kane Vincent-Young’s excellent cross, to boost his campaign tally to 10 goals, although he wants to further boost that total during the last few weeks of the season.

“I’ve hit double figures now, and I have been waiting for that, I’ve been working hard for it,” enthused Mandron, a summer signing from Wigan Athletic .

“And it comes at a really good time for us, a winning goal.

“We hadn’t won in six games, so it feels good to get back on the score-sheet and also for the team – it feels amazing to get back to winning ways.

“Ten goals was my first target for the season, but now I want to kick on and score as many goals as I can.

“The performance was back to the levels where we want to be. I thought we built that up from the performance on Tuesday (0-0 draw away at Morecambe), which was a very tough game,

“But here we were able to express ourselves a bit better. We started strongly, passing the ball around well. When you start like that, it always helps.

- Carl Marston’s Talking Points

“I had a chance to score before my goal. It was a great pull-back from Szmods (Sammie Szmodics), but I guess I needed just one more chance to put it in. That was my sighter, I was just getting warm!

“It was a great build up, starting from the other side of the pitch. It came across and Kane (Vincent-Young) did well to get down the line and deliver a great ball in.

“I think it was a good finish. I haven’t seen it back yet, but I got good contact with it and the ball ended up in the back of the net.”

Team-mate Szmodics remains the leading scorer with 13 goals, but Mandron is on his coat-tails going into the last seven matches.

“I’m feeling good,” said Mandron. “As long as the chances keep coming your way, then you are always likely to score. That brings a whole lot of confidence to the team.”

Mandron also believed that being way from home may have helped the team.

“At home, if you go 10 or 15 minutes playing below par then you can feel the pressure go through the team and through the crowd. Perhaps it helps being away from home,” added the Frenchman.