Macauley Bonne has admitted that he is hopeful his four-goal showing against Wealdstone in the FA Cup will be enough to earn him a first-team place at Colchester United.
The 20-year-old had not started a single game for the U's since the start of September, but he put that disappointment behind him to guide his side to a 6-2 win in the first round of the competition.
Bonne admits that he was looking to send out a message to manager Tony Humes, with his impressive individual display against the National League South side going a long way to doing exactly that.
"I've been trying to prove my point for the last month, scoring and putting in shifts for the Under-21s," he told BBC Sport. "I like the Under-21s because it shows them I can play against strong opposition. Hopefully I've shown what I can do and it's up to the manager.
"I'm happy with the four, but at the end of the day I could have had probably double that. I think I did fatigue a bit and probably could have cut [a late chance] across, but when you're on four you just get greedy and think 'what's the point?"
Bonne had previously scored just four goals in his senior career.
