Luke Garbutt has not ruled out the prospect of staying at Colchester United for longer than the initial one-month loan, following an impressive debut at Bradford City on Saturday.

Garbutt hastily put pen to paper on a loan move from Everton on Friday morning, and was then thrown in at the deep end by U’s boss Joe Dunne.

The 20-year-old caught the eye at left-back, as a replacement for Ryan Dickson, who has been dogged by a virus in recent weeks.

Garbutt played the full 90 minutes, in an entertaining 2-2 draw at Valley Parade, and looks set to keep his place at home to Crawley Town this Saturday.

And he could be at the Essex club for longer than just a month, if the U’s express an interest in retaining his loan services.

“I’ll just get through the first month and see how I do,” explained Garbutt, in response to the possibility of extending his stay.

“If the gaffer wants me here longer, then we’ll sit down after the month has ended.

“It’s just good for me to get some game-time on the pitch.

“This is the next level up for me, having played in League Two at Cheltenham Town. This is League One, and I obviously noticed the step up, although I played against Bradford when at Cheltenham, against virtually the same team, so I knew what to expect.

“The gaffer (Dunne) had already told me how the team plays, and I like the style, getting the ball down to pass it, and get crosses in,” added Garbutt.

Garbutt made 36 senior appearances for Cheltenham, during an eight-month loan spell in 2011-12, and made his Everton debut against Leyton Orient in the League Cup last year, coming on as a half-time substitute in a 5-0 win.

He signed a new contract this summer, which will keep him at Goodison Park until 2015, but for the moment he is happy to flourish in Dunne’s squad at Colchester.

His composed debut, at Bradford, certainly belied the fact that he had only signed just over 24 hours earlier.

“The deal came through late. I sort of knew about it on Thursday, and signed on Friday,” continued Garbutt.

“I was basically up here in the hotel to meet the rest of the squad, when the gaffer told me I would be playing. It was all a kind of a blur, and a bit quick.

“But I think I took it all in my stride, and the team played well.

“As a footballer, you’ve got to deal with things thrown your way during your career. You’ve just got to deal with it and do the best you can.

“We did well on the counter-attack, and could have scored a couple more goals as well.

“In fact, I think the team played well, against a very direct team.

“We had to deal with a lot of long balls, up to (James) Hanson, while obviously (Nahki) Wells is one of their best players.

“But I think, all-in-all, we’ve come in and dug in and got a good point.”

Garbutt had to cope with an early yellow card against Bradford – he was booked after just 18 minutes for chopping down Garry Thompson.

It was the feared that the Bantams would target Garbutt for the rest of the match, but the England under-20 international was unperturbed.

“The early booking did not help. It was a tough challenge, so I had to manage my game correctly,” said Garbutt.

“The gaffer told me to be careful at half-time, saying that they would try and get me booked again, to get me sent off, but that never materialised.

“Now I’m looking forward to getting to know the lads a bit more this week. I only knew one or two of their names before Saturday, but I’ll know more this week.”

Garbutt’s crossing was particularly impressive at Bradford, and he revealed: “I take most of the set pieces at Everton, and the gaffer has told me to get on them straight away.”