Freddie Sears chose the perfect time to score his first ever brace, as his quality double earned Colchester United three precious points in their bid to escape relegation on Saturday.

Sears produced a pair of deadly finishes, in first-half stoppage time and then on 73 minutes, to help secure a valuable 3-2 win at basement dwellers Stevenage on Saturday.

The ex-West Ham attacker was quick to point out that the U’s still have a big job to do, during the last four games of the season, to safeguard their League One status for a seventh successive campaign.

But his double blast, sandwiching a close-range goal by fellow front-man Jabo Ibehre, has lifted Joe Dunne’s men three points clear of the drop zone.

“It’s a massive win for us,” confirmed Sears.

“And it’s been one of my best days in a Colchester shirt, definitely.

“It was good to score two goals for the club, although it would have been nice to score a hat-trick.

“We are just looking up now. There’s a buzz around the group.

“Last weekend (2-1 home defeat by Tranmere) was a real come-down, because we got caught by two sucker punches.

“But this is a big win for us, psychologically, after four defeats,

“We now have four games to go, and we are all confident,” added Sears.

Sears bagged his ninth and 10th goals of the season at Broadhall Way, volleying home in the third minute of first-half injury-time to cancel out Michael Doughty’s 11th opener for the hosts.

The 24-year-old also delivered the 49th minute corner from which Ibehre poked home from close range, and then crashed home the U’s third goal with 17 minutes remaining.

Stevenage did pull a goal back in the 89th minute, via Luke Freeman’s free kick, but the U’s made sure that they held on to claim their first win in six games.

Sears had scored eight goals for the U’s last season, and two the previous campaign during a loan spell, but Saturday was the first time that he had netted two in the same match.

He is now one ahead of Ibehre, who has nine goals to his name, but realises that the main aim is to keep the U’s in League One.

“We are still not out of it. We are not silly, we know we are not out of it yet,” admitted Sears.

“It’s a big win, but we are not going to get carried away. It’s a massive three points, and now we’ve got to build on it for next Friday against Oldham.”