Colchester United’s leading scorer, Freddie Sears, helped himself to his 11th and 12th goals of the season to help crush Brentford 4-1 on Saturday, and so effectively secure League One safety for the U’s.

This victory, combined with defeats for relegation rivals Carlisle and Tranmere, plus a very favourable goal difference, meant that the U’s had preserved their League One status for a seventh season, barring an exceptional set of results on the final weekend.

“We knew we had to win the game, and we ended up doing it in style!” enthused Sears.

“We scored four goals against a very good team.

“We had a good chance early on with Jabo (Ibehre). It didn’t go in and we kind of felt the nerves a bit.

“But once we scored the goal (from Marcus Bean) and followed it up with the second (from Alex Wynter), it took a lot of the nerves away,” added Sears.

Ex-West Ham attacker Sears converted a 41st minute penalty, and then added his second and the U’s fourth on 64 minutes.

He hobbled off with a sore hamstring late on, but is still hoping to be fit for the last game of the season at Walsall next Saturday.