BEN Goodliffe has vowed to give everything when called upon as he strives to nail down a place in Colchester United’s starting line-up.

The 25-year-old centre-back made a goalscoring return to the U’s side for their Bristol Street Motors Trophy draw at Leyton Orient on Tuesday night, after finding himself out of the team for their previous two games.

Goodliffe did his chances of keeping his place in the team no harm at all with his performance in the 1-1 draw at Brisbane Road and U’s summer signing from Sutton United insists he will be ready, whenever he gets the call from boss Danny Cowley.

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Goodliffe said: “Every player obviously wants to play football and I’m one of them.

“I’ll always give my all when I’m called upon.

“It’s obviously the manager’s decision to pick the team and I’ve just got to make sure that I’m in the right frame of mind and giving it my all and my best, when I am called upon.

Goodliffe scored Colchester’s equaliser in the 79th minute at Leyton Orient, swiftly following up to score from close range after Jack Payne’s excellent free-kick had smacked the underside of the crossbar and bounced down.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

However, the former Wolves youngster admits he celebrated a crucial defensive block to deny substitute Charlie Kelman in the latter stages of the Group E clash just as much as his goal.

Goodliffe said: “It felt good especially so late in the game and I celebrated it – I can’t lie!

“My team-mates gave me some congratulations but the game wasn’t done.

“Manny (Egbo) made a great header just after that on the final whistle, so we’re all doing our best to keep the ball out of the net.

“We have three clean sheets now this season and it’s something that we need to be better at but it’s nice to get a goal at the other end and that helps.”

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Goodliffe and his Colchester team-mates now have a ten-day break until their next fixture, a home clash with Cheltenham Town on October 19.

Goodliffe added: “The break is nice and I think it’s come at a good time so that a couple of the injured boys can get back fit and when we come back in, we’ve got a fit squad to attack it again.

“We’ve won some good games and we’ve only lost one of our last nine, so that’s only a positive.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

“We’ve got to try and turn these draws into wins and we want to win every game that we step on the pitch for.

“This is a competition that we definitely have a chance of doing well in and being successful in it.

“We’ve got one group stage game left and we’ve got to win that to progress and that will be our full focus.”