BRENNAN Dickenson is hoping his eye-catching midweek display has boosted his chances of starting Colchester United’s home clash with Cambridge United this weekend.

The skilful wide-man shone on the U’s debut against his former club Brighton and Hove Albion in the League Cup on Tuesday night, despite their 4-0 defeat at the Amex.

Dickenson missed out on their League Two curtain-raiser at Hartlepool United last weekend because of an ankle problem.

And having impressed against the Seagulls, the 23-year-old is hoping he has done enough to have played his way into head coach John McGreal’s plans for the Cambridge clash.

Dickenson said: “I hope I’m in the running for a start on Saturday.

“The manager doesn’t give too much away but we’re back in training today and we’ll push hard and train the best that we can and he’ll pick his XI.

“There’s a lot of competition for places and I think that’s the hardest thing about being a manager – if we’re all performing well then he’s got to pick a team.

“But he’ll only pick the team based on what he feels will win the game so we just have to work hard as individuals and then as a team on Saturday, to try and get the points.

“I can’t wait to play at home in front of the Colchester fans and hopefully they can sing us along to victory.”

Dickenson excelled in a left wing-back role at Brighton, as Colchester adopted a 3-5-2 system at the Amex.

“I played left-back quite a lot last season,” said the former Gillingham player.

“Wing-back suits me and I feel like I can get forward and defend at the same time.

“I feel I need to work more defensively, if I’m going to play that role more consistently but everyone can learn new things, so just have to work on that.

“I felt that I played really well (at Brighton).

“I was back at my old club and when you play at a stadium like that, you have to thrive on the occasion which I felt I did.”

Dickenson believes Colchester can learn from Brighton’s ruthlessness in front of goal, after the Championship side struck four times in the final 26 minutes to claim victory.

Dickenson said: “Brighton are a good Championship side who should have been promoted last season but I thought that we held our own.

“We were well in the game, up until when they scored their goal.

“Brighton were very clinical in the final third and you can see that by them scoring four good goals – it’s something that we can learn from.

“We’re disappointed to have conceded the four goals but there are positives to be taken out of it.

“We’ll look at both the positives and negatives and hopefully stamp out the negatives and move on to Saturday.”