Steven Gillespie wants to maintain his red-hot scoring streak for Colchester United tonight - and banish the memory of his Valley ghost goal.

The in-form U’s striker returns to Charlton Athletic for the first time since he had a legitimate goal controversially ruled out there last season.

Referee Darren Sheldrake twice disallowed Gillespie’s strike in Colchester’s 1-0 defeat at the Addicks in February, 2011.

Having incorrectly blown his whistle for offside before the ball hit the net, the Surrey official then changed his mind and allowed the effort to stand.

But just before the game was due to re-start fourth official Elliott Kaye intervened, resulting in the strike being disallowed for a second time.

Gillespie is hoping for better fortune tonight - but knows that taking on leaders Charlton will be a tough task.

Gillespie said: “I’ve scored at the Valley before and I’ll try and score there again.

“You love to score against the big sides, because you’re playing against the better players.

“Charlton are where they are for a reason and I’d be delighted to get a goal there.

“But it’ll be a tough game and it’s without doubt our hardest game of the season so far.

“We’ll go there and hopefully play as well as we did against Preston and try to give them a good game.”

See Tuesday's Gazette for more on this story and a full preview of Colchester United's game at Charlton Athletic.