Porter Enjoying The U's

George Porter is enjoying life with the U's after another Man of the Match display yesterday was capped off with his first goal in the blue and white colours.

Porter has come into his own just recently on the right flank for the U's with his abundance of trickery and skills causing full backs no end of problems, and he topped that off with a fine equaliser for Joe Dunne's men yesterday afternoon.

Linking up well with fellow loanee Michael Smith, the borrowed Burnley player twisted his man to cut inside and thrash home a shot beyond the reaches of Steve Phillips in the Crewe game, and he admits the goal has been a long time comin.

'Michael did really well holding it up down the wing to find me, and it's been a long time coming,' he told BBC Essex after the game. 'But it's my first goal for Colchester so I'm happy about that.

'It came at a good time as we were pressing them and it was right before half-time. The defender came to my left and nobody was with me, so I cut onto my right foot and it opened up well for me.'

There was an opportunity for Porter to repay the favour later on in the game as he lobbed a delightful cross into Smith, but the Charlton man failed to bury the opportunity on the volley.

Despite the miss, Porter insists that Smith had a good game and was unfortunate not to get on the scoresheet.

'I thought Michael did well when he came on, he gives us a different threat as a tall lad so he was holding the ball up well. It would have been nice to repay his favour though and it was 1-1 at the time.'

Although the U's came away from the game empty-handed, Porter remained surprised at the case following a dominant second-half in which chance after chance went begging for the hosts.

Echoing his manager's thoughts, he affirmed that all the U's could do was reflect on what was good about the performance and head to Coventry on Tuesday night full of belief.

'We're sat in there with our heads in hands,' he admitted. 'I think we're all a bit surprised and the manager has complimented us on the performances.

'There's so many positives from the game that we just have to keep our heads up. We have a massive game on Tuesday so there's no point dwelling, we just have to pick ourselves up as it's just been unfortunate.'

The former Leyton Orient winger is currently with the U's on loan until the end of the season from Burnley, but all U's fans would welcome the 20-year-old signing a permanent deal in the summer to bring him back down south.

The Londoner admits that he is enjoying his time with the U's and explained how Joe Dunne's style of play and method of thinking appears to have finally embedded into the squad that he overhauled in January.

He continued: 'I had a really good meeting with the gaffer on Friday where we spoke about a lot of things. It's really sunk in how he's got the team playing lately and we've really taken to him.

'I'm full of confidence at the moment and really enjoying myself; I feel at home here and the crowd have welcomed me so it's been brilliant.'

Could his loan spell be extended into something more permanent in the summer then? Porter smiles: 'Who knows?'


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