Man of the match, Sammie Szmodics, believes that Colchester United have what it takes to win promotion back to the third tier this season.

Szmodics tucked home his sixth goal of the season, to inflict a narrow defeat on Swindon Town, so propelling the U’s up to the heady heights of third in League Two.

“The difference this year is that we have got goals all over the field,” enthused Szmodics.

“You look at Jacko (Ryan Jackson) with his two goals. (Fellow defender) Frankie Kent has also got two, so we have got goals coming from all areas, which is what you need in a team to get promoted.

“I’ve got six goals now, but I just want to keep playing well. Scoring is a bonus for me because I want to keep working hard for the team.

“It would be special for me, to win promotion at my home club.

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“I’d love to get a promotion. Unfortunately I’ve had a relegation with Colchester and now I’d like to turn it around by winning promotion, to get the club back up to where it should be.

“And hopefully that will happen this season. It’s certainly looking good at the moment,” added Szmodics, who has been with the U’s since the age of seven.

The 23-year-old attacking midfielder continued: “The first half we had pretty much all of the ball, but in the second half we didn’t have as much of the possession as we would have liked.

“But we can do both parts of the game. We defended really well, with both centre-halves and the full-backs as well – we were as strong as a wall today.

“I think all four defenders could have got man-of-the-match, and it was another good clean-sheet.

“Frankie (Kent) and Luke (Prosser) were unbelievable. Swindon only got through a couple of times, while the save by Rene Gilmartin (from Martin Smith) was a great save. Otherwise, Swindon couldn’t get through us. It just shows that we have good units throughout the team, to get us another three points.

“We have won seven games out of nine at this ground, and we want to keep that momentum going.

“Teams will come here to get a point by putting players behind the ball. They will come here not to lose, but we played well today.

“We can beat teams by three or four goals here, but we can also win 1-0 and defend for the whole of the second half,” added Szmodics.