Sammie Szmodics' fine strike helped Colchester United record an impressive 3-2 win at fellow promotion hopefuls Swindon Town tonight and move up to fifth place in League Two.

Szmodics struck with 12 minutes remaining to bag his tenth goal of the season and give the U's a notable win, at the County Ground.

Kaiyne Woolery had given Swindon the lead but Frankie Kent cancelled it out, on the stroke of half-time.

Mikael Mandron then headed the U's ahead in the second half and although Kellan Gordon quickly equalised, Szmodics fired home to give the U's victory and extend their unbeaten record at Swindon to five matches.

Colchester head coach John McGreal made one change to his starting line-up for their game at Swindon.

Kyel Reid was recalled for his first league start since late October in place of centre-back Ryan Inniss, who was ruled out due to a shoulder injury suffered against Exeter City.

It resulted in a switch to a 4-3-3 formation, with Drey Wright moving to a right-sided role and Szmodics playing just behind Mandron up front.

Defenders Cole Kpekawa and Cameron James were both named on the bench, along with former Swindon midfielder Sean Murray.

Kent picked up an early booking when he was cautioned in the sixth minute for holding back Woolery after his attempted clearance had come back off the Swindon attacker and allowed him to run through on goal.

But Colchester made a good positive start and some neat interplay involving Reid and Wright resulted in the latter’s cross being cleared at his near post by Matt Preston.

Swindon went close themselves soon after when Paul Mullin cut in from the left flank and unleashed a fine right-shot that flew inches over the bar, forcing U’s goalkeeper Sam Walker into action for the first time in the game.

But at the other end, Kane Vincent-Young was unlucky not to break the deadlock when he did well to intercept in midfield before advancing towards goal and unleashing a left-foot strike that flew over the bar.

The deadlock was broken with nine minutes of the first half remaining.

The U's failed to deal with Matty Taylor’s fine free-kick into the box from the left and Woolery steadied himself before firing home.

Colchester protested that the effort should have been chalked off for offside but it stood and it looked like they would go in at the break trailing.

However, with practically the last kick of the first half, the visitors were suddenly level.

After picking up possession in the Swindon six-yard box following a Reid corner, Kent directed a shot high into the opposite corner of the net for his third goal of the season.

It left it all to play for in the second half and Swindon made a double substitution at the break, sending on Kyle Knoyle and John Goddard for Ben Purkiss and Keshi Anderson.

But just after the hour mark, Colchester went ahead for the first time in the game.

After the impressive Kane Vincent-Young had been fouled on the left flank, Reid whipped in a delivery which Mandron met with a bullet header to give the U’s the lead and bag his seventh goal of the season.

Szmodics wriggled away in the area before slamming in a shot that deflected into the side netting with 18 minutes remaining, as the U's looked for a way to make the game safe.

But four minutes later, Swindon were level.

Colchester failed to clear Taylor's corner and substitute Gordon's low shot flew in despite best efforts of Walker and skipper Tom Lapslie to keep it out on the line.

It was not the end of the scoring though.

Just two minutes later, Szmodics found space in the Swindon area before steadying himself and drilling a fine low shot into the far corner for his tenth goal of the season in just 19 appearances.

And it proved enough to give Colchester a win that moved them into the play-off places.