Colchester United forward Matt Jay scored at Swindon

The 27-year-old struck his first goal for the U’s to cap a man-of-the-match display in their 2-2 draw at Swindon Town, last weekend.

Jay has had some difficult times at Colchester since joining them from Exeter City a year ago today and has often found himself out of favour.

But he shone in Danny Cowley’s first game in charge of the U’s and is now aiming to use it as a springboard for more good times.

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Jay said: “That goal has been a long time coming, too long!

“I’ve been disappointed; I’ve really wanted to do well since I’ve come here.

“The fans have always been really good with me; they’ve been with me through some tricky spells.

“I felt (against Swindon) that I probably played one of my best games for the club, so hopefully it’s the start of a good end to the season.

“The fans have been with us through thick and thin and they helped us over the line.”

Jay says Danny and Nicky Cowley ‘filled him with confidence’ ahead of the Swindon game.

The duo took over in charge of Colchester last Thursday, following Matty Etherington’s departure.

“They’ve been great since they’ve come in,” said Jay.

“You could see we were all together and a lot of the clear messages that they gave us going into the game were put onto the pitch, so I think it’s only going to get better.

“It’s been pretty clear that we’ve been struggling to get results, so to come back after giving away two soft goals was really pleasing.

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“You can tell how much energy the two of them bring to the group and they bring clarity to the way that they want us to play.

“They know about every player which is really good, so they’re very personable as well.

“They’ve been brilliant so far and great with me, so I’ve appreciated that.

“They filled me with confidence and some of it’s not easy to do, if it’s someone who’s not scored or been in and out and had a bit of a tough time and a tough season, so far.

“They just came in and put an arm around me, not that I needed that but it certainly helped.

“I felt like I could do pretty well (against Swindon) and I wanted to.

“I think we’re going to be working hard this week ahead of Bradford but to be honest, that’s what we need – we want to show that we’re capable of getting up the league.

“They’ve made it very clear that we shouldn’t be where we are."

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Colchester ended a three-game losing streak in League Two with their draw at Swindon.

Jay added: “It felt like a win to be honest.

“We’re all delighted to start the new management team off with a decent point.

“Swindon is a tough place to come; they’ve lost a couple of their really good players so played a slightly different system and we felt like we did pretty well.

“To score right before the break was really important because it gave us a bit of a new lease of life, going into the second half.

“It was a very important time to score, just before half-time and then literally on the final whistle, so they were nice times to score.

“It’s disappointing to concede the goals that we did and it’s definitely something that we have to improve on, going forward.

“I’m pretty sure that that’s going to happen, because we’ve got a new management team and we all want to impress, so I think if we’re not doing our jobs then we’ll be let know about that."