HARRY Pell admits he was left confused after scoring twice in Colchester United’s win at Port Vale – because he could not decide which of his goals was best.

The midfielder netted with a sweet left-foot strike in the first half during the 3-0 triumph at Vale Park, before following that up with a deflected long-range strike in the second half.

Pell said: “I’m a bit confused, because I don’t know which goal is better!

“The first one was fantastic and the second one was fantastic as well, so it’s really hard to pick.

“Both were executed fantastically, so I’m over the moon.

“It’s seven for the season for me now – Nos (Luke Norris) and Szmods (Sammie Szmodics) are worried, I’m not going to lie!

“They are expected to get a lot more goals than me, so I’m on their tail!”

Pell felt Colchester responded to pressure in the best way possible after getting back to winning ways at Port Vale.

The U’s ended a four-game winless run to get their League Two promotion push back on track with the victory.

Pell admits Colchester had been on a ‘bad run’ prior to the win, after claiming two points from a possible 12.

But after scoring twice to help John McGreal’s side move to within a point of the automatic promotion places, the midfielder insists spirits have always been high within the U’s squad.

Pell said: “I’ll tell the truth – there was a lot of pressure on us as a group to win that game.

“We’d been on a bad run, there’s no hiding that.

“We’ve got an end prerogative of where we want to be so whether we’d won (at Port Vale) or over the Christmas period, we’ve got our target we need to reach so wherever they come, when they come, we’ll be happy.

“It was a really good performance and a win that we desperately needed, I’m not going to lie.

“It’s documented that we try and reach a points tally every month and when you’re not reaching them, it hurts a little bit.

“But around the place, you’d have never have known because the mood around the place is exactly the same as it was at the start of the season.

“It’s a really energising place to play.

“Yes, the boys are down after a bad result but as soon as you step on the training ground on a Monday, there’s no time to dwell on things.”

Courtney Senior got Colchester off to a dream start with a fifth-minute opener at Port Vale, before Pell added two more goals.

“The boys started really well and we came out of the blocks really strongly,” said Pell, who has now scored seven times this season.

“It helped that the goals came at vital times.

“They picked up steam in the second half but our third goal just completely killed them off.

“Everyone stepped onto the pitch and played their part.

“It’s a difficult thing what we want to do and where we want to get to, so every little helps, whether it’s goal difference or not.

“We’re just completely concentrating on ourselves, that’s all we’ve ever done - we don’t really pay too much attention to anyone else.

“We have a points tally that we want to get to and if everyone stays fit and concentrates on our goal, then I don’t think there’s any reason why we shouldn’t achieve it.

“We’re scoring goals again and we’re keeping them out at the other end, so that’s the old us really.

“We knew that we needed to get back to that as soon as possible.”