JEVANI Brown admits he has something to prove after marking the start of the season in scoring fashion for Colchester United.

The 25-year-old experienced a frustrating first year with the U’s but crowned the new campaign with a fine goal in his side’s 3-1 Carabao Cup first-round loss at Championship club Reading.

Brown managed just five league starts for Colchester after joining them from Cambridge United and ended last season on loan at their League Two rivals Forest Green Rovers.

However, he has spearheaded the U’s attack in pre-season and after impressing at the Madejski Stadium, the skilful attacker says he is hoping to repay boss Steve Ball’s belief in him.

Brown said: “I’ve got a lot to prove more for myself than anything else, with my personal goals that I set for myself for the season.

“I believe in my ability and what I can do out on the pitch.

“I just want to get out there and play games and let my football do the talking.

“Going out on loan, I started off alright but then picked up a hamstring injury, which didn’t help.

“That’s football; stuff happens like that in football and you see that at every level.

“It’s just how you bounce back and hopefully, I can just keep this run going.

“Confidence is a massive thing and from day one, the gaffer has told me that he’s right behind me and that’s given me an extra boost that I think I needed.

“Hopefully I can repay his belief in me by doing what I do on the pitch.”

Brown gave Colchester the lead at Reading with a superbly-taken goal, after brilliantly flicking in Cohen Bramall’s cross.

“I was expecting it; I tried it and it came off so I’m happy with that,” said Brown.

“I was expecting it as me as I’ve said to Cohen (Bramall) and Miquel (Scarlett) and other full-backs since I’ve been playing up there that if you get it in that position, just whip it across the six-yard box and if I’m not there, you can have a go at me.

“I do try it in training a lot, just in case it comes up in a game and I know what to do.”

Colchester produced an excellent first-half performance at Reading.

But the hosts improved in the second half and Lucas Joao’s hat-trick sealed the Royals’ progress.

Brown added: “For the majority of the first half, I thought we were on top of the game.

“The goal just before half-time was really crucial for them.

“I didn’t feel like we quite got going in the second half but if we got in at half-time 1-0 up or nicked another which we had chances to do, I think we would have gone on to win the game.

“We’ve been playing a lot of football in pre-season and you could see, we’ve done that against a Championship side.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to just take the positives from the game and try and bring that into the league.

“We take this into the season and we’ve got a chance.”