COLCHESTER United’s Ellis Iandolo is hoping his opening-day goal will be the first of many for him this season.
Iandolo headed in from Jack Payne’s pinpoint delivery to score the U’s first goal of the new League Two campaign in their 2-2 draw at Accrington Stanley.
It was the 28-year-old’s fourth goal in Colchester colours – and the enterprising left-back is now hungry to add more to his tally.
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Iandolo said: “I don’t score many, so it was nice to get on the end of one.
“I think with Tucks and Rags now, two big profiles who will probably be the most likely to get marked.
“It’s nice sometimes to be the next one that maybe gets under-marked and I can definitely pick up a few more goals than last year and probably in my career from set pieces – I’m in the box a lot and can get some good contacts in there.
“It was a great ball from Payney and I found myself in a really nice pocket.
“Without the good delivery, I don’t get the ball so I have to thank for that as well.
“It was a set piece we’d worked on throughout the week – I was just grateful to get in the right position and get good contact on it and see it go in.
“Accrington are a man to man side and they defend differently to most teams in the league, so we knew that if we worked the set piece that we did, it might be a problem for them.”
Iandolo started at left-back for Colchester against Accrington but ended up switching into central midfield following Teddy Bishop’s early injury, before moving back to full-back in the second half.
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Iandolo said: “It’s the first game of the season and you never quite know what’s going to happen.
“Injuries happen and I’ve done it a lot during my career, so it’s nothing new to me.
“If the team needs me in midfield or at left-back, it’s part and parcel of my job as a player to adapt to that.”
Iandolo has now switched his focus to Colchester’s first home league game of the season against Oldham Athletic this Saturday, following their draw at Accrington.
Iandolo added: “We went there wanting to win but a point is a good result, at Accrington.
“I think it was kind of what we expected.
“The first game of the season is always a bit cagey, a bit hard to predict what might happen especially at a place like Accrington.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game and we certainly got that, in the first half.
“I don’t think we played well at all really and we were lucky to go 1-0 up and lucky to come in at 2-1, to be honest with you.
“It was a good reaction and a lot better in the second half and we did well to come away with a point.
“After the first half, it was a really good reaction from the boys.
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“We’re grateful to come away with a point and we can build on that now.
“It’s Oldham at home at the weekend and all eyes are on that.
“We’re a humble group; we’re all about working hard and we’ll have a real good training week, put everything we can into it and it’ll be nice to play in front of our fans again.
“We’ll go into it looking to back it up.”
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