COLCHESTER United’s newly-crowned Player of the Year Noah Chilvers says he is excited at the prospect of playing under Hayden Mullins, next season.

The talented 20-year-old, who was also crowned the U’s Young Player of the Year last week, has just enjoyed a superb breakthrough campaign in League Two.

Mullins was last month named as Colchester’s permanent boss, having been in interim charge alongside Paul Tisdale for the final eight games of the season and assistant manager, prior to that.

Chilvers says Mullins had a big impact in the crucial closing few weeks of the campaign and the U’s midfielder says he is looking forward to pushing towards the right end of the table under Mullins, in the 2021-22 season.

Chilvers said: “I’ve learnt a lot from Hayden.

“He’s a great coach and has a very calming presence - I think he really helped us, towards the end.

“Tis (Paul Tisdale) helped a lot as well with his experience and we had a good balance, under Hayden.

“I’m excited for next year under Hayden and I think we can do really well.

“It’s about getting ready for next year and making sure that we can be at the right end of the table that we want to be and we should be, with the players and the club that we’re playing for.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard: Col Utd 0-2 Newport.Noah Chilvers.

“We should be aspiring to be going up rather than struggling to stay up – that’s the aim.”

Chilvers made his first-ever league start in Colchester's goal-less opening-day draw at Bradford City, last September.

In total, he started 36 of the U’s 46 league games and making 49 league and cup appearances, scoring three times.

Chilvers was utilized in a wide midfield role in the final weeks of the season to good effect and says he enjoyed the responsibility it brought.

“Towards the end of the season for Hayden, I played in a position that I’d never really played in,” said Chilvers, who also won the U’s Goal of the Season award for his superb strike against Barrow.

“I played out wide quite a few times which is something I’ve never really done since I was 15 or 16 in the academy.

“It was a bit different but I was happy with myself that I didn’t really get too affected by the pressure that we were under.

“In the games against Walsall and Southend, as a team and as individuals we could have crumbled but we pulled together and played our own games.

“We didn’t really listen too much to outside noise or what might happen; we were confident that we were going to get it done.”