THE last time Colchester United raided Swindon Town for a striker, his goals played a part in them winning promotion.

More than a decade later, the U’s will be hoping that history repeats itself.

Luke Norris, who joined Colchester from the Robins in the summer, still has a lot of work to do if he is emulate Jamie Cureton’s magnificent Golden Boot-winning first full campaign at Layer Road.

Cureton bagged 24 goals in that memorable 2006-2007 season, having earlier chipped in with goals to help Phil Parkinson’s side seal their place in the second tier while on loan.

That prolific Championship campaign will go down as one of the best-ever seasons by a U’s striker and will be difficult to emulate.

But Norris is certainly on the right track, if his clinical early-season scoring form is anything to go by.

The powerful striker’s fine brace in Colchester’s 3-3 draw at Oldham Athletic at the weekend made it six goals in his first seven starts for the club.

Indeed, former Gillingham man has netted five league goals so far and is currently fifth in the League Two top scorers chart.

The 25-year-old is averaging a goal every 74 minutes in the league for John McGreal’s side, despite having missed much of pre-season because of injury.

It is an impressive feat – and a long time since a centre-forward has made such a big impact in such a short space of time for Colchester.

Kevin Lisbie hit the ground running in his second spell for the U’s after joining them from Ipswich Town, scoring six times in his first nine games in the 2009-10 season, having hit 17 goals in his first stint at the club.

And David Mooney was also rapid starter for Colchester in the 2010-11 season, hitting the net five times in his first ten appearances while on loan from Championship club Reading.

More recently, Chris Porter netted seven goals in his debut season for the U’s in 2015-16 but Norris is just one goal away from equalling that total – and that is before the end of September.

Indeed, he has already scored nearly half the number of goals registered last season by Colchester’s top scorer that year, Sammie Szmodics.

It is not just the number of goals Norris scored that is impressive – it’s the variety of them, too.

His first goal at Oldham was an instinctive predatory finish, while his second involved some fine skill and execution.

And like Cureton, he is Colchester’s nominated penalty taker which will no doubt also help to boost his tally.

Norris has also shown he is willing to give as good as he gets when it comes to doing battle with opposition defenders.

U’s boss McGreal was about to send Courtney Senior to replace him after around 20 minutes at Oldham after the striker took a whack – but there was no way he was coming off.

“Every week is the same and you wake up on a Sunday feeling battered and bruised and I never want to come off the pitch,” he said afterwards.

Colchester will be hoping Norris clocks up the minutes for them this season, if it means he maintains his potent scoring streak.