COLCHESTER United's top marksman, Kevin Lisbie, faces a race against time to be fit for Saturday's trip to promotion-chasing West Brom.Lisbie swept home his 15th goal of the season in last weekend's 5-1 defeat at Norwich City, before limping off with a calf injury after 71 minutes.

Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United's top marksman, Kevin Lisbie, faces a race against time to be fit for Saturday's trip to promotion-chasing West Brom.

Lisbie swept home his 15th goal of the season in last weekend's 5-1 defeat at Norwich City, before limping off with a calf injury after 71 minutes.

The ex-Charlton front-runner is therefore a doubt for the visit to the Hawthorns, which could scupper his plans of closing in on 20 goals for the campaign.

“I really want to keep playing, and you want to be featuring in big matches like the one at West Brom,” insisted Lisbie last night.

“I've got 15 goals, and I'd like to get as close to 20 as I can.

“That's my target. I know that we haven't had the best of seasons as a team, but I reckon I still have a few more goals in me.

“I'm desperate to play on Saturday. I love playing in front of big crowds,” added Lisbie.

The 29-year-old only scored 16 league goals during 11 seasons as a professional at Charlton, although 93 of his 155 league appearances were as a substitute.

He therefore has a chance to score more goals in one season at Colchester than he achieved from 1996 to 2007 at The Valley.

But he needs to shrug off this current calf injury, not least because the U's are already hampered by a long list of injuries - Teddy Sheringham, Mark Yeates, Kevin McLeod, Kevin Watson, Aidan Davison, Danny Granville, Chris Coyne, Luke Guttridge and Karl Duguid are all out injured at the moment.

Lisbie continued: “My calf was feeling tight before the game at Norwich, and it gradually got tighter during the match. It was very sore.

“I've been having treatment on it all week. The plan is not to train at all until Thursday, when I'll then test it with some running.”

Although the U's are rock bottom of the Championship, and a massive 11 points adrift of safety with just six games remaining, Lisbie is amongst the Championship's top five leading scorers.

In fact, only West Brom's Kevin Phillips (19 goals), Wolves' Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (18, 11 of those for Plymouth) and Southampton's Stern John (16) have scored more goals than Lisbie.

The U's striker is equal with Sheffield United's James Beattie on 15 goals.