JOHN McGreal feels his Colchester United are looking a “clinical” force following their prolific start to the season.

The U’s have hit the net an impressive 20 times in League Two so far and are the leading scorers in the division.

Colchester have scored six times in their last two games, with nine different players on the scoresheet for them so far.

McGreal said: “We’ve got lots of different goalscorers in this side, which is good.

“Hopefully, there’s more to come and we looked like we could score out of nothing.

“We do look clinical and I’ve said that to the boys.”

Luke Norris is Colchester’s leading scorer with six goals, following his brace in their 3-3 draw at Oldham Athletic.

The 25-year-old was given plenty of close attention from the Latics defence throughout the game at Boundary Park and was close to being substituted in the first half, after suffering a knock.

Norris was eventually replaced by Mikael Mandron with 11 minutes of normal time remaining and showed his disappointment at being taken off.

However, McGreal said: “Luke took a hell of a whack in the first half and then something else happened, so we thought we might have to take him off after 20-odd minutes.

“Then he took a bit of a whack on his quad.

“He didn’t want to come off and I understand that, because he wants to win with the team.

“I just felt that the way the game was going we needed a couple of boys up top and it worked.

“Luke’s a strong lad and he’s a confident boy - we’re getting him fitter and fitter.

“If we keep him fit and get him in and around that box and sharpen him up, we could see from his second goal - it’s a fantastic finish.

“The good thing about Luke is that he knows what he’s very good at and he showed that with his two goals.”

McGreal has revealed a number of Colchester’s starting line-up were nursing injuries going into the game at Oldham. He said: “Some of the boys hadn’t trained, so it was a big ask for our lads.

“Pelle (Harry Pell) didn’t train (on Friday), Jacko (Ryan Jackson) and Kano (Kane Vincent-Young) have been struggling with groin injuries and Frank Nouble hadn’t trained much during the week, so we have been fully loaded to train in the week.

“Thankfully the boys put in a shift and credit to the boys that they want to go out and perform, even though they are struggling with little niggles - that’s a good sign.

“We’re still in a healthy position in the league and we haven’t lost away from home – it’s all good at this moment in time.”