COLCHESTER United's leading scorer Luke Norris is hoping he has put a frustrating time firmly behind him after scoring in back-to-back games.

The 26-year-old made his first start in five matches for the U’s at Cambridge United and marked it with a goal in their 2-1 defeat, at the Abbey Stadium.

It was Norris’s second goal in successive games after he came off the bench to net in Colchester’s 3-1 triumph over Swindon Town, last week.

Norris has now reached double figures for the season with ten goals and the former Brentford youngster is now hoping for more.

Norris said: “I’ve been a bit frustrated lately.

“I felt like I was doing OK, we had a manic Christmas period and Theo (Robinson) has come in and done brilliantly.

“I had a lot of frustration there and it was nice to score against Swindon and then get the start (against Cambridge) and get another goal – it should have been a happy day but it wasn’t, because of the result.

“It was nice to score but I’d exchange it for three points.

“You want goals to win games, not just consolation goals.

“I got a lot of stick and I thought I answered it by scoring against them with their fans but the sad thing is that they got the last laugh.”

Norris says Colchester now need to show their character after their long unbeaten run came to an end at Cambridge.

It was the U’s first defeat in 17 matches and they will be looking to bounce back when they host fellow promotion hopefuls Plymouth Argyle, on Saturday.

“All runs do come to an end and we need to start another one now,” said Norris.

“We’ve got a really tough game on Saturday against Plymouth – we’re back at home and we have to put it right.

“We have a full week ahead of us to prep for it and it’s a game where we have to put things right and get back on the road.

“We have to show our character now and bounce back from losing (at Cambridge).”

Norris put Colchester ahead at Cambridge with a well-taken 68th-minute header.

But two goals in little more than a minute from substitutes Andy Dallas and Harvey Knibbs condemned the U’s to a first league defeat since last October.

Norris added: “There wasn’t much in it, over the 90 minutes.

“It was scrappy but they didn’t create anything; there was nothing but all of a sudden, it was two shots and two goals and we were behind.

“There wasn’t a lot of quality in the game and the conditions and pitch didn’t help.

“We got ourselves ahead away from home but we didn’t deal with it.

“If we are going to defend a lead shall we say, we need to do it better than that.

“Both of their goals went straight through the heart of us, which doesn’t normally happen to us.

“The first goal took a bit of a deflection but how they get into that position is something we need to look at.

“The second goal is what we try and do every week which is try and stop crosses and defend our box and we didn’t do that.

“It was around 90 seconds of madness really.

“We are normally solid and we’d been unbeaten for so long, so it was hard to take.”