Craig Slater is hoping he has done enough to keep his place in Colchester United’s line-up - and make his first-ever home start for the club.

The 22-year-old midfielder impressed after being recalled to the U’s team for their 1-1 draw at Barnet, in only his third start for them since arriving from Kilmarnock in July.

Slater is yet to start a game for Colchester at the Weston Homes Community Stadium and now has his sights set on keeping his place for their home clash with Accrington Stanley, this weekend.

Slater said: “Since I came down, I’ve just wanted to play every game and that’s not quite happened.

“I’ve had to work hard and it’s been frustrating.

“Any time I’ve had game time I feel as if I’ve done well and I was obviously disappointed to be left out of other games.

“I feel as if I should have had my chance and hopefully I took it.

“I was just happy to come in and start from the offset and hopefully that will continue.

“At the end of the day, it’s about the team and we’ve played some really good stuff from the start of the season.”

Slater was one of Colchester’s stand-out players at Barnet, where the U’s were cheered on by more than 650 U’s fans at The Hive.

“A point was a good result and we’ll take that on," added Slater, who has started three of Colchester’s four league away games this season.

"Hopefully we'll get three points (against Accrington Stanley) if we can play like we did in the first 25 minutes.

“We got a point (at Barnet) and if we keep winning our home games, we’ll definitely be up there at the end of the season.

“The late equaliser was disappointing but I don’t see why anyone should be down, because we can take that on to next weekend.

“A draw was probably a fair result in the end.

“As soon as the game started, we were on the front foot and we deserved our goal.

“We gave them something to think about and had we got another one during that period it maybe kills the game off.

“We were under a bit of pressure in the second half and I don’t think anyone was under any illusions about where the ball was going to go.

“The goal was disappointing but we defended well and we just need to keep doing the right thing.”

Colchester’s under-23 side host their Crewe Alexandra counterparts in Professional Development League Two at the Weston Homes Community Stadium tonight (7pm).