John McGreal insists that it will take a “huge offer” to prise his in-form attacker Sammie Szmodics away from Colchester United in next month’s transfer window.

Szmodics scored his 12th goal of the season and his seventh goal in his last eight matches to help the U’s win 2-0 at Crawley Town yesterday and move up to fifth in the League Two table.

The 22-year-old’s fine performances have been attracting the attention of watching scouts but head coach McGreal says the Colchester-born youngster will not be going anywhere – unless they receive a substantial bid.

McGreal said: “It’s going to take a big bid for Sammie to go – he’s under contract and he’s one of our own as we keep saying week after week.

“He’s playing regularly and he’s enjoying his football – there would have to be a huge offer come in.”

Colchester have now lost only one of their last eight away games in League Two after claiming victory at Crawley, winning five of them.

McGreal said: “We set ourselves up to hit them on the counter and they’ve had to adapt to how we would perform, because we were getting good opportunities.

“The pleasing thing for me is that the two centre-forwards scored which was excellent and the goalkeeper and the back four kept a clean sheet.”