Freddie Sears has reached double figures, for goals scored, following his ninth and 10th goals of the season at Stevenage – the first time he has managed that in his career.

And with Jabo Ibehre weighing in with his ninth of the campaign, in the 3-2 win at Broadhall Way, the race is on to finish top of the goal-scoring charts.

“Me and Jabs are forging a real partnership up there, at the moment,” explained Sears.

“We’re both working hard and working well off each other. You see defenders dropping deeper and deeper, which gives us more time to get on the ball and for the midfielders to come up.

“The early goal in the second half (from Ibehre) really put them under pressure.

“I think I’ve just got one goal above Jabo now.

“I’m obviously delighted to be in double figures for the season, but it’s going to go down to the wire, between Jabo and me, to see who is going to be the leading scorer.

“But that’s not as important as getting the points, and keeping Colchester in the league,” added Sears.

Despite falling behind, to Michael Doughty’s 11th minute opener, Sears always felt that the U’s were in the box seat.

“Obviously it was hard when we went 1-0 down, but we still believed. We had a game plan at the start, and it worked well,” explained Sears.

“The goal before half-time really got us going, so that we started the second half in a really strong position.

“These are the sort of moments that change games, goals just before and after half-time, which we’ve had today. It went our way for once.

“Everyone is in it together, and we have just got to get over that line now.

“We have been a bit slack lately, with taking our chances, and it’s the defence that has been keeping us in games.

“The defence this year has been brilliant, much better than last season.

“The onus is on the strikers to score, and we got three goals today, although we probably could have had a few more.”