TEDDY Sheringham believes that Colchester United should start making giant strides up the Championship table following Saturday's win at Hillsborough.The U's have now chalked up two away victories, and on both occasions Sheringham has been on target.

By Carl Marston

TEDDY Sheringham believes that Colchester United should start making giant strides up the Championship table following Saturday's win at Hillsborough.

The U's have now chalked up two away victories, and on both occasions Sheringham has been on target. The 41-year-old netted in the 3-0 win at Preston on August 25, and he broke the deadlock in the very first minute at Sheffield Wednesday.

It was his first start since the 2-2 home draw against Charlton on September 15, and only his sixth start of the campaign. He has had to overcome a hamstring injury and also serve a three-match ban for being sent off for violent conduct at Coventry.

“It's frustrating to have been out for so long. You can't do anything about injuries, but it was a silly sending off,” admitted Sheringham.

“It was good to be playing again, and it was an unbelievable start. I think it was my first touch of the ball, it must have been. The ball stood up well and I hit it sweetly.

“Getting the second goal (from George Elokobi) was important, but I think we should have scored three or four goals.

“We should be much higher up the league. There are a lot of good players at this club, and we should be getting better results.

“I'm getting some good receptions at each ground, like at Wolves and again today. I don't know why, but it was a lovely moment when they clapped me off the pitch,” added Sheringham.

Former England striker Sheringham drew both high praise and good humour from his manager Geraint Williams.

The Welshman joked: “It was Teddy's pace that got behind their defence for the goal! It was a bit of a surprise to see him there!

“But Teddy is top quality. He took his goal well. This was a great result for the players, and they deserved this win.

“It's been coming for a long while, like at Wolves in the week when we hit the post at the start and at the end of the game.

“Going forward we were a big threat, and it's just a disappointing that we didn't go on to get the third and fourth goals in the second-half.

“I have players with stitches (Kevin Lisbie), and players with concussion (Matthew Connolly), but we at Colchester have to play flat out to compete at this level,” added Williams.

The manager-of-the-month curse struck Wednesday boss Brian Laws. He won the Championship's November accolade, for three wins and two draws, but was critical of his team's performance against the U's.

“We didn't have any cohesion and our passing was non-existent. It was all just huff-and-puff, and there was nothing that you could really bite your teeth into. It was very bitty,” said Laws.