Sammie Szmodics just wanted to take off his clothes and celebrate in front of the Colchester United fans!

Attacking midfielder Szmodics put all his recent injury woes behind him, by marking his first appearance of 2017 with a deadly close-range finish from Brennan Dickenson’s cross.

The 21-year-old had been dogged by ankle problems for the best part of a year, undergoing two operations in that time, and he had only made one brief outing (as a 77th minute substitute at Mansfield in December) during the last four months.

But now Szmodics is back, and he means business.

“I’ve worked so hard to get to this point,” admitted Szmodics.

“I played 45 minutes for the Reserves at Derby last Monday, and Tom Lapslie then felt his groin in training last Thursday, so the gaffer (John McGreal) asked me how long I could play for this weekend.

“I said that I thought I could play for 60 minutes, but as it happened I came on for the last 15 minutes.

“It was great to make such a big impact, and to get the equaliser.

“The ball came off my head, not my chest. In fact, it hit my face. I didn’t know much about it.

“That was a great moment, with nearly 1,500 away fans behind the goal.

“I didn’t know what to do. All I could think of was just taking off all of my clothes and going to celebrate in front of our supporters!

“I’m a local boy, and I’ve been playing for this club for 10 years, so I knew how much the goal meant to them, and me,” added Szmodics.

Meanwhile, manager John McGreal said: “The subs came on and they made an impact. In the end, we were trying to go on and win the game.

“We thought that Macca (Macauley Bonne) had got the equaliser (on 80 minutes). It didn’t look offside from where we were standing.

“But I’m pleased that we did finally get the goal, and it’s a good point for us.

“I thought we dominated possession in the first half, and it was a good performance from what was a very young team which finished the game.”