Chris Porter was not expecting to be thrown into the first-team fray quite so soon, at Accrington Stanley on Saturday, but he knows that he and his Colchester United team have a job to do against play-off rivals Wycombe Wanderers tonight.

Front-man Porter, who had missed the previous two matches with a sore hip, tucked home his 10th goal of the season via a 76th minute penalty in the 2-1 defeat at the Crown Ground.

He was introduced early, as a 26th minute substitute, due to fellow striker Denny Johnstone’s serious-looking knee injury.

“I haven’t really trained, if I’m being honest, since the Blackpool game,” admitted Porter.

“So in an ideal world, I would have only got 10 or 15 minutes towards the end at Accrington.

“I’ve had a hip injury, a strange one – I think I pulled a muscle in training a couple of days after the Blackpool game.”

Both Porter and fellow striker Kurtis Guthrie nearly poached equalisers with close-range efforts during the dying minutes of Saturday’s reverse at Accrington.

It was a desperately disappointing result for John McGreal’s men, although it was only their third defeat in their last 14 league matches.

They remain just three points adrift of the top seven, and Porter can’t wait for tonight’s test.

“When you’ve lost a game, you want another one as soon as you can, to put things right,” enthused Porter.

“So obviously being back at home on Tuesday against a team that is right up there, is just what we wanted.

“It’s a big week for the club, and we need to pick up points to stay up there, in and around the play-offs.

“Hopefully, it will be a contrasting performance from us, compared to Saturday’s game!” added Porter.

Ex-Sheffield United target man Porter has scored goals at a healthy rate this season, despite a number of niggling injuries.

He has managed 10 goals in 23 league appearances, already his best haul in terms of league goals since the 14 he netted for Motherwell in the Scottish Premier League in 2007-08.

But the 33-year-old still has some way to go, if he wants to threaten his season-best tally of 21 goals, achieved for Oldham Athletic (2006-07) in League One.