HAT-TRICK hero Jamie Cureton believes that Colchester United are good enough to stay in the Championship.Summer signing Cureton chalked up the eighth hat-trick of his career to propel the U's to a 4-3 victory over visiting Derby County on Saturday.

By Carl Marston

HAT-TRICK hero Jamie Cureton believes that Colchester United are good enough to stay in the Championship.

Summer signing Cureton chalked up the eighth hat-trick of his career to propel the U's to a 4-3 victory over visiting Derby County on Saturday.

It was an early birthday present for the hit-man, who turns 31 today. Despite conceding two goals in the last 10 minutes, Geraint Williams' men deservedly held on to chalk up their first points of the season, so ending a run of five straight league and cup defeats.

“Finishing fourth from bottom will be a success story for us this season but we want to do better than that,” insisted Cureton.

“I've always said that our main aim is to stay in the Championship, before we hopefully move into a new stadium next year. And I know we are good enough to compete at this level.

“It's been a great day for me and the club. We needed to go into the fortnight's break with a win, and it's such a relief to get off the mark.

“We wanted to treat the game like a cup tie. We wanted to get at Derby and that worked straight away.

“We had several early shots and we kept up the momentum for as long as possible.

“I hit the bar early on, after which I thought - “Oh no, I'm going to be out of luck again!” - but if I keep getting the chances, then I'll get the goals,” added Cureton, who had failed to hit the target in the U's previous five outings.

“That's my first hat-trick for two years. My last one was for QPR against Coventry,” revealed Cureton.

Hull City's attacking midfielder Stuart Green is believed to be one of the targets of U's manager Geraint Williams, who is eager to strengthen his small squad before the transfer deadline at the end of this month.

However, Hull would be reluctant to allow Green to sign for Colchester in the wake of the disagreement between the two clubs over the summer following manager Phil Parkinson's move from Layer Road to the KC Stadium.