Colchester United midfielder Chay Cooper eager for game time

The 22-year-old started for the U’s for the first time since November when he featured in the defeat at MK Dons, on Boxing Day.

It was reward for his goal against Salford City last Friday and Cooper is hoping to retain his place for Colchester’s trip to play AFC Wimbledon tonight.

The former Spurs youngster is eager to take his chance.

Cooper said: “It’s such a big and competitive squad, especially in the midfield and attacking areas.

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“There are so many experienced players and we’re all going for the same thing, which is the shirt.

“I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing – working hard, training well, scoring goals and getting assists and putting in performances.

“Hopefully, I can keep getting opportunities.

“The gaffer has given me more opportunities than I’ve ever had so I’ve got to be thankful that for that.

“The biggest thing for me is that I’m ready to start week in, week out so if I don’t get a string of games then fitness wise and mentally I’m there.

“It’s frustrating when I get taken out of the team but it’s football; it’s a competitive game and you’ve got to understand it.

“I got given a chance against Salford, came on and took it.

“The gaffer then gave me an opportunity to start at MK Dons.

“It was good to get a start but ultimately, the result was the main thing and we obviously didn’t get that.

“There were a lot of positives to take out of it but there’s a lot of things to work on, with Manny (Egbo) getting injured, having to change formation and we had to adapt to that.

“We’ve have liked to have got a lot more of the ball than we did but we had a few half chances as the game went on and we played some good football as the game went on but couldn’t really get a foothold in the game.

“They were a good team but we probably could have affected the game more than we did.”

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Cooper insists Colchester’s players are confident that they can climb away from League Two relegation danger.

The U’s have lost six of their last seven matches but attacker Cooper is adamant they have what it takes to move up the table.

“Everyone knows where we are but we know we’re more than capable of getting away from where we are," said Cooper, who has played 14 times for Colchester so far, this season.

“If you look at the league, there’s so many opportunities to get games with the amount of games there are.

“We just need a run of wins and the next thing you know, we’re talking about other things in the game.

“We know as a group that we can get out of the position that we’re in; it’s just a matter of doing it sooner rather than later, I think.

“We fancy ourselves in every game.

“Every time we watch games back, there are positives.

“It’s the small details at the minute where we’re losing games, whether it’s a set piece, a lack of communication; we’re there or thereabouts, it’s just a few little details to work on.

“Any game we go into, we think we’re going to win and it helps when there’s loads of games coming up.

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“We have Wimbledon, Gillingham and then we go into the New Year with a bit of positivity.

“The game against MK Dons was a prime example in that we didn’t have much of the ball at all but we could have easily left that game with a 1-0 win.

“Whether we go into games and we dominate the ball, at the end of the day we need to get the result so ultimately, it’s not how much of the ball we have, it’s the other things that come with it like set pieces.

“There’s lots of good things from our performances and if we can just get those small margins as well, I think there’ll be a few good results coming up.”