COLCHESTER United head coach John McGreal has lauded the red-hot impact his front pairing Theo Robinson and Frank Nouble made in their 3-0 triumph at Swindon Town.

Robinson scored twice against his former club in what was his first league start for the U’s and shone alongside Nouble, who provided the assist for the Southend United loanee’s emphatic second strike.

McGreal said: “The way that both Theo and Frank performed as a pair – I thought sometimes they were unplayable.

“Theo’s first goal was excellent and I thought it was a great team move.

“And for the second goal, Frank did unbelievably well and showed a bit of pace to lay a lovely pass off.

“I just wondered if he (Theo) had enough energy as we were already thinking of making a change as he was cramping up but he put it into the top corner and it was an unbelievable finish.

“Theo has had to bide his time and I had a good chat with him, last weekend.

“He hasn’t been up to speed with fitness but the amount of effort he’s putting into training – he loves the environment.

“He knows a couple of the players here and he works ever so hard.

“All he’s been wanting is an opportunity so I just said to him ‘hold those thoughts – let’s see what happens on Tuesday’.”

McGreal also had words of praise for teenager Kwame Poku, who impressed at Swindon in his first-ever league start.

“He’s just turned 18 and he has a big future ahead of him,” said McGreal.

“Every time I see him he’s smiling – and if he’s not smiling, he’s sleeping!

“He’s just a boy who’s enthused at the minute and he’s gone into the first-team environment where the experienced boys like Frank Nouble and Luke Prosser have really helped him.”

McGreal made five changes to his first XI at Swindon, with Robinson, Poku, Brendan Wiredu, Brandon Comley and Cohen Bramall handed starts.

Luke Norris, Tom Lapslie and Luke Gambin dropped to the bench, with Ben Stevenson, Ryan Clampin and Paris Cowan-Hall not even among the substitutes.

McGreal added: “We’re carrying quite a few numbers and I think (the Swindon game) was the hardest one to choose from, especially when you’re bringing the class of Luke (Norris) out of the team and the likes of Ben (Stevenson), Paris (Cowan-Hall) and Ryan (Clampin) out.

“Ryan has had a good run of nine or ten games on the bounce and we just felt that he was a little bit fatigued, last Saturday.

“With bringing in Kwame, I just felt with a little bit of experience behind him might help him as well and I think that’s what Cohen (Bramall) did - he came in and did brilliantly well.

“We’ve got bodies – Jevani Brown missed out at Forest Green as have the likes of Paris (Cowan-Hall), Luke (Norris) and Ben (Stevenson) at Swindon.

“It’s not that they’ve done anything wrong; it’s just the numbers we have at the minute with the experienced boys, so one or two of them have to miss out.

“The subs have performed to a good level and they haven’t really let anyone down.

“They’ve picked the heat of the game up and I thought that was the case (at Forest Green).”