Colchester United’s man-of-the-match, Sean Murray, is hopeful that his influential team-mate, Kurtis Guthrie, will not be out of action for long.

Midfielder Murray starred in an attacking midfield role during Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Hartlepool, and was delighted to see Guthrie head home his 12th goal of the season, as well as earn the penalty which Chris Porter duly dispatched,

Guthrie’s afternoon finished prematurely when he was stretched off the pitch late on with an ankle injury, immediately prompting fears that the striker’s season might be over.

But Murray hopes that the U’s front-man will make a quick recovery.

“There was another goal for Kurtis today, and he also won the penalty,” explained Murray.

“I know that he wanted to take the penalty as well! But it was definitely Ports’ penalty to take!

“It’s early days yet, after his injury, but I think Kurtis is going to be OK.

“You never know what extent the injury is going to be, but I think he will be OK. I’m no physio, so I wouldn’t know, but I think him hitting the ground with his hands (in frustration) was him just showing his passion, because he probably wanted to stay on the pitch for the whole game to get another goal – that’s the type of guy that he is,” added Murray.

Ex-Watford and Swindon 23-year-old Murray is certainly a player who plays with plenty of passion himself. He admitted: “I get a bit too into it sometimes, but passion is a big part of my game.

“I get a bit over-the-top when we score sometimes, or we win a penalty, but I think that’s good. As a team we all need that, because we are all fighting to get up into the next league.”

Meanwhile, boss John McGreal said of Saturday’s win: “We’ve made it a little bit difficult for ourselves, especially after getting 2-0 up. I thought our second-half performance was a lot better than our first half, but we just knocked off a little and they scored.

“At half-time ,the players knew they could be doing better – we hadn’t really got going.

“But it was a terrific opening goal, with some good old-fashioned play. It was a great delivery from Brinds (Brindley) and a good finish by Kurtis (Guthrie), who has tended to do that for us all season.”