SAM Saunders says he would dearly love to add another promotion to his CV after linking up with Colchester United until the end of the season.

The 35-year-old knows exactly what it takes to go up from League Two, having helped Wycombe Wanderers achieve the feat last season.

Saunders, who has joined the U’s on a free transfer until the end of the season, has also won promotion at Brentford and Dagenham and Redbridge during the course of his career.

And after making his Colchester debut as a substitute in their 1-0 triumph at Cambridge United, the experienced midfielder has his sights set on achieving another success with his play-off chasing new club.

Saunders said: “I wouldn’t have come to Colchester if I didn’t have that desire and hunger to achieve.

“There’s no point and this move isn’t about money or anything like that.

“It’s about me playing football and trying to get another promotion on my CV.

“When I got the phone call and spoke to the gaffer, I was like ‘yeah, I’m up for that’.

“I’ll try and do whatever I can to try and get this club promoted.

“I got promoted out of this league last year – I know what it takes and looking at this squad, that experience in and around it is probably one thing that the gaffer thought was missing a little bit - maybe to try and win the game, change the game or shore it up.

“I want to be starting games and hopefully that’ll come in time with fitness.

“But at the moment, I’m just here to offer my services to do whatever the gaffer needs, to get us the results.”

Saunders joined Colchester last week as a free agent, after leaving Wycombe by mutual consent in January.

“It was a bit of a rollercoaster week, to be honest,” said Saunders, who linked up with his new U’s team-mates for the first time last Tuesday.

“I spoke to Bally (assistant manager Steve Ball) and he mentioned about coming in.

“We were aware that the window closed last Thursday, regarding being able to sign until the end of the season.

“I had a couple of other options to play for other clubs but when Colchester came in with the style of play, the team they have and their management, it ticked a lot of the boxes and I thought ‘yeah, why not?’.

“I’m here until the end of the season and hopefully, I can push the team to promotion.”

Saunders appeared as an 83rd-minute substitute for Tom Lapslie in Colchester’s victory at Cambridge, which ended a three-game losing run for John McGreal’s side.

The U’s are now just a point off the play-off places with six games remaining but Saunders says they must now focus on the visit of Oldham Athletic to the JobServe Community Stadium, this weekend.

He added: “I’m very excited and very happy after a big performance and big win.

“But it’s just the start of it and there’s a lot of games to come and we need to keep our feet on the ground.

“Yes, let’s enjoy because they deserve it and there’s been a couple of iffy results lately but the hard work starts now and we go again.

“The aim (at Cambridge) was to get the three points.

“We had some good chances and we huffed and puffed in the game to hopefully try and make it a bit easier.

“It didn’t quite go our way but credit to the lads – they kept pushing forward, kept going and kept driving and I think we got what we deserved.

“We knew that the other teams had tough fixtures but we can’t dictate what they do or results they get - what we can do is worry about ourselves.”