Chris Porter will be giving “that little bit extra,” against his old club Sheffield United today, in a bid to kick-start Colchester United’s latest escape from relegation.

Porter was signed by the U’s, from the Blades, 12 months ago, and he has since taken over the club captaincy duties.

The 32-year-old missed the U’s fantastic 3-2 win at Bramall Lane last September, which was the Essex club’s first win of the season at the ninth time of asking, due to injury.

But the target man is raring to go, against his former club this afternoon, and is again set to partner Marvin Sordell in a two-pronged U’s attack.

“It does have that extra edge for me, personally, playing against Sheffield United,” explained Porter.

“That’s the longest I’ve ever spent at one specific club, so I’ve got a lot of friends there, among the players and coaching staff.

“So I shall be giving that little bit extra, I think!

“I missed the game up there, because of injury, but this is a chance to double them,” added Porter.

Although the U’s remain deep in trouble, towards the foot of the table, after a miserable run of just one win in their last 15 league games, Porter believes that the outlook could be a lot brighter after the next week.

The U’s have three games over the next eight-day period, with home matches against Sheffield United and Fleetwood Town (next Tuesday evening), and a trip to Scunthorpe on Saturday week.

They are currently five points adrift of safety – and a dreadful goal difference effectively makes it six points – but the U’s have showed sign of improving under new manager Kevin Keen, who was appointed to the hot-seat just four days before Christmas. A nine-game losing streak was ended by a 1-1 draw at Oldham, and then last weekend the U’s reached the fourth round of the FA Cup, via a 2-1 home win over Championship strugglers Charlton Athletic.

“I think we’ve been very unlucky in the three league games that he (Keen) has been here for,” continued Porter, with reference to the defeats by Southend and Gillingham, and the draw at Boundary Park.

“To only get one point is not what we deserved. I think we should have at least got four, if not seven points, out of these three games.

“Performances have improved, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the points start rolling in.

“In fact, it can change very quickly over the next seven days.

“In two weeks time we could be out of the relegation zone, but the main thing is that we look a better team, now that the new manager has come in, and performances have improved.

“It’s a big two weeks for the club, and looking further ahead, we are playing lot of teams that are down there with us, over the next month, so it’s an important period.

“A few wins and everything changes. It becomes a completely different picture,” added Porter.