John McGreal admits he is not surprised that Sammie Szmodics is attracting attention after his goals helped Colchester United beat Exeter City 3-1 this afternoon.

Szmodics scored two clear-cut goals and also had a big hand in the U's opener when his strike deflected in off Grecians defender, Troy Archibald-Henville.

The former Stanway School pupil, who also hit a post against Exeter, has now scored nine goals this season for Colchester and boss McGreal says that is attracting interest.

He said: “There’s a lot more interest now in him and we have Premier League and Championship scouts, because they know that we’re a young team with five academy players in the starting team so it’s going to attract interest.

“We talk about Sam because he deserves all the credit but we’ve had to work hard as a team in the second half, after what was an excellent first half.

“I keep waxing lyrical with Sammie Szmodics – we’ve missed him when he’s been injured and today he’s scored different types of goals and he just gets himself into those areas.

“He could have had four goals where it’s hit the post.

“He’s walked off with the match ball but there were some terrific finishes.

“Even his penalty was a great finish because he was under pressure to score it, as we’ve missed the last couple."

Colchester went in at half-time 3-0 up and substitute Jayden Stockley's second-half header proved only a consolation for the visitors.

The only real downside for the U's was the shoulder injury suffered by defender Ryan Inniss, just after the break, as McGreal's men drew level on points with seventh-placed Coventry City.

"I thought the first-half performance was excellent," added McGreal.

"It was a good first hour but then we lost Ryan (Inniss) and we had to adapt and change one or two things.

"We lost a bit of our cohesion and they nicked a goal from a set piece.

"For ten minutes after that, they put us under the cosh a little bit with diagonals coming into the box and Sam (Walker) made a good save.

"We were a little bit wasteful but then we took the steam out of it a little bit."