NOAH Chilvers is finishing the season with a flourish.

And Wayne Brown has revealed a key decision made at the start of his interim reign paved the way for the talented midfielder to go from strength to strength for Colchester United, in the final months of the season.

In January, when Brown took over as the U's temporary boss, Chilvers had been struggling with a quad injury.

He had not completed a full 90 minutes for six weeks and for his first game in charge at Salford City, boss Brown took the decision to leave the U's academy graduate on the bench.

Ironically, Chilvers was called upon after just 25 minutes in that 3-0 win at Moor Lane, coming on as a first-half substitute for the injured Cole Skuse.

Nevertheless, after that match it was decided that the skilful youngster should rest and recuperate, in order to come back stronger.

The 21-year-old sat out Colchester's next five games before returning as a substitute against Northampton Town, nearly a month later.

Since then, Chivers has not looked back, featuring in each of the U's next 15 matches.

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He has been in excellent form in those games, scoring five times and playing a big part in keeping Colchester in League Two.

Brown said: “When we came in, Noah was carrying a bit of a knock and a niggle.

“That had probably been the case for a good few weeks.

“We took the decision away from the player, because he’s an honest kid and he just wants to crack on and play through it which is admirable.

“But we took him out of the equation for two weeks and managed to get him as near as 100 per cent as you’re ever going to be, to give himself the best chance of impacting games of football.

“And what an impact he’s had, since he’s been back in the team.

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“We all know what quality Noah has in the locker but when you’re carrying a bit of a knock or a niggle, it does play on your mind as a psychological block, if you like.

“Once that was taken away from him, he’s gone out there and expressed himself and he’s been one of our top performers."

Chilvers has now made 98 league and cup appearances for Colchester since making his senior debut for them, in March, 2019.

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The U's newly-crowned Young Player of the Year and Hospital Radio Player of the Year has a very bright future and Brown says it is down to Chilvers just how far he now goes in the game.

Brown said: “How far he can go is down to the individual.

“What we’ve given him at the club is many, many years of coaching, real good detail as we do with all the young individuals.

“But ultimately, it’s then down to the individual on how far they want to take it and how far they want to go.

“With Noah, his hunger, his desire, his attitude, his mentality has got better and better over the years and it’s no coincidence that he is playing very well at the moment, because he has got quality in abundance.

“What he needs to keep doing is keep reproducing the quality and the performance levels that he has done, to stay in the team and to keep on improving his own performances game in, game out.”