RILEY Harbottle insists his focus is on the here and now after hitting the ground running with Colchester United.

The 23-year-old defender has impressed since joining the U’s on loan from Scottish Premiership side Hibernian, despite having hardly played in the first half of the campaign.

Harbottle played just twice for Hibs before leaving to join Colchester on loan, in last month’s transfer window.

The centre-back joined the Edinburgh club from Nottingham Forest last summer and still has more than two years remaining on his contract at Easter Road but insists his immediate focus is on performing well for Colchester.

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Harbottle said: “I didn’t want to waste the season and I want to play games.

“When we had the conversation, I wasn’t playing up in Scotland.

“I went and spoke to the club and they spoke to me and I said ‘I need to go and play games’.

“I’m still developing; I’m still young.

“I’ve had two loans before and then made the step up to Scotland.

“Obviously, it didn’t work out how I would have wanted at this moment in time. 

"I’ve had to reassess and come back and do my best for Colchester.

Gazette:

“My focus is on Colchester.

“I’ve still got two more years at Hibs under contract but my focus is on this season, game by game and making sure that we get higher up that table.”

Harbottle has started all four games for Colchester since joining them on loan and says Danny and Nicky Cowley were a major factor in him joining on loan.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air,” said Harbottle, who spent last season on loan at Mansfield Town.

“Danny and Nicky have been brilliant with me and a big reason why I wanted to come to the club.

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“Obviously the league position isn’t the most attractive but when you’ve got managers and players like that…I was really shocked when I saw the league position with the players we have here.”

Harbottle has impressed for Colchester since joining them; the only blot on his copybook has been the unfortunate own goal he scored in their 1-1 draw against Accrington Stanley, last Saturday.

Harbottle said: “I take full responsibility at the weekend; I think that’s my mistake.

“Everyone’s going to make mistakes in games but we’ve got to look at the other side of the game of killing it off when we have the chance, just to give the defence the confidence that we can take as many chances as we can and we can afford to push on.

Gazette:

“As many goals you score in a game, it makes you more comfortable.

“I think we made it harder for ourselves when they went down to ten men; I think we were more comfortable against 11.

“We’ve got to adapt quicker and we’ve got to take responsibility ourselves.”

Colchester head to bottom club Sutton United tomorrow, aiming to pull further away from the League Two relegation zone.

Harbottle added: “It’s definitely an opportunity for us.

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“I think the performances have been a lot better for us, over the last few weeks.

“Results obviously haven’t followed but hopefully, we can change that into a performance and a result, at the weekend.

“I don’t think we really look towards the opposition; I think we’re more focused on ourselves.

“We know that if we do what we know we can do, we’ll be able to beat anyone in this league.

“I think we’ve become harder to beat and if you look at the goals that we’ve conceded, we’ve dropped points against Forest Green, Harrogate and Accrington where we’re at fault and it’s on us.

“We’re dominating games and you can see that the team is a lot better than the league position.”