MARK Yeates has revealed his goal target for the season - and he's already half-way there after just six weeks!Bubbly winger Yeates almost single-handedly rescued a point for Colchester United with a brace of blistering free-kicks in a 2-2 draw at Blackpool.

By Carl Marston

MARK Yeates has revealed his goal target for the season - and he's already half-way there after just six weeks!

Bubbly winger Yeates almost single-handedly rescued a point for Colchester United with a brace of blistering free-kicks in a 2-2 draw at Blackpool.

The Dubliner boosted his tally for the season to five goals from just seven league games, and four in a week, thanks to his 25-yard thunderbolts in the 63rd and 86th minutes. This double blast followed up his goals against Charlton last Saturday and at Southampton on Wednesday night, though the latter is still under debate - it might yet be confirmed as a Rudi Skacel own goal.

There was no doubting his stunning strikes at Bloomfield Road. Yeates' swerving free-kicks cancelled out goals from Andrew Morrell and Shaun Barker.

“I set myself a target of 10 goals for the season, and I didn't dream that I'd be getting there so quickly!” confessed Yeates.

“But I've got to keep up this form, otherwise all this will be forgotten. I had been taking it in turns with Johnnie Jackson to take the free-kicks, but I've now got the nod ahead of him because of my goal at Preston. I'm good for taking a few more now.

“I'm just glad to be back at Colchester playing, and playing well again. Last season was a strange one for me. To be honest, I didn't enjoy myself one bit at Hull (on loan). It all went pear-shaped for me from the start.

“I then scored on my debut for Leicester (on loan), and I started a few games for them, but there was a lot going on with possible take-overs. I didn't really know what was happening at Tottenham, but once I had spoken to the gaffer (Geraint Williams) this summer, I knew that I wanted to sign for Colchester,” added Yeates, who was on loan at Layer Road in the promotion campaign of 2005-06.

The U's have now drawn five of their seven matches in the Championship, which is frustrating for an on-fire Yeates.

He added: “We are all getting sick of drawing games. We've got to start winning. It was a special afternoon for me, but we are not helping ourselves. We need to start picking up three points.