JAY Mingi says he backs himself to impress in any position on the field for Colchester United after shining in a centre-back role.

The 23-year-old capped a man-of-the-match performance for the U’s against Newport County by scoring their dramatic late winner in a 2-1 win on Good Friday.

Mingi has played most of his career to date as a midfielder but has been excellent in a central defensive role for Colchester over recent games and says he is relishing a different challenge.

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Mingi said: “I like playing everywhere.

“If I get called to do a job, I’ll do the job, no matter where that is on the pitch.

“I love midfield but sometimes, you have to play out of position.

“I have so much faith in my ability and I back myself, no matter where I am that I’m going to go out there and take care of business.

“The last time I played in defence was three or four years ago, when I played at centre-back at Charlton.

“It’s a different experience – it’s different to midfield because there, it’s chaos but I feel like I can see the whole pitch at centre-half and I have a lot of time to assess what I need to do.”

Gazette: Jay Mingi

Mingi lashed home Colchester’s winner against Newport in stoppage-time, firing home a first-time shot from Harry Anderson’s pass.

It was the former Portsmouth player's first-ever U's goal and he admits it was a great feeling to find the net.

He said: “After I scored, I didn’t even know what to do!

“It was an amazing feeling and I couldn’t have asked for more from the team.

“I never expected to get a goal playing at centre-back, even going up for corners and attacking set-pieces.

“I thought that if I was to score a goal, it would be coming back from a corner on the edge of the box and just smashing it with a worldy but I’m grateful.”

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Colchester are now preparing to face Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park on Easter Monday, aiming to rack up back-to-back wins for only the second time, this season.

Mingi added: “It’s good for morale and confidence, going into the next few games.

“I feel like we deserved the win and it’s finally come.

“It was a massive win as we hadn’t had one in a while and it came off the back of a really good performance against Mansfield.

“One thing I’ve got to say about the group is that we never give up, so anything is possible if the team keeps doing the right thing.”