Brandon Comley admits scoring his first-ever career goal to earn Colchester United a point at Mansfield Town was a ‘surreal’ moment.

The 22-year-old midfielder found the net for the first time in 81 professional appearances, in the U’s 1-1 draw at Field Mill.

Comley said: “I didn’t know what to do to celebrate!

“Hopefully, it’s the first of many for me and I’ll try and get a few more and help the team out.

“It was a surreal moment and took a long while to come but I’m definitely happy with it.

“In my head, I just thought ‘beat the man and get a strike on goal’ and if someone gets a touch, they get a touch.”

Colchester lie six points off the League Two play-off places following their draw at fifth-placed Mansfield.

They have ten games remaining to close in on a top-seven finish and Comley firmly believes it is possible.

“We’ve proved that we can beat the teams that are up there so I think it’s just a case of showing that against teams that we sometimes struggle against,” said Comley, who joined Colchester on a permanent basis from QPR, in January.

“I know we can make it – if we knuckle down with every man accountable for himself, it’s definitely something that we can achieve.

“We proved earlier in the season when we went on that run that we can do it and if we can cut out the little mistakes, we’ve definitely got a chance of getting in.

“We really wanted the three points and it’s the same with every game.

“But coming from a goal down away from home and perhaps not having our best performance in the first half, it’s something we’ll definitely take against a team pushing to get into the top three – hopefully we can build on it.

“The gaffer got into us and told us that we needed to buck our ideas up.

“I’m happy he did that because we started the second half fast and created chances.

“That turned it into a proper game of football and it was an end-to-end game and gave them a run for their money.

“It was a proper game of football.

“Some parts of the pitch were a little bit mucky and sometimes, it was going a bit long.

“But I feel that especially in the second half, we showed that we can play under pressure.”

Colchester’s under-23s are in Professional Development League Two action this lunchtime.

They host Bristol City under-23s at Florence Park, kick-off 1pm.