Phil Parkinson is aiming for a champagne finish to Colchester United's season.

And he would like nothing more than to play out the remaining five games with plenty of fizz, sparkle and style.

Presented yesterday afternoon with a bumper bottle of bubbly and a crystal decanter by Football League sponsors Nationwide - his prize for winning the Division Two Manager-of-the-Month award for March - the U's boss is keen to keep everyone upbeat and in celebratory mood.

Champagne moment: Phil Parkinson with his bottle of bubbly for being voted Manager-of-the-Month. Picture: TERRY WEEDEN

"It's important that we keep our fine run going," said Parkinson, who goes into tomorrow's home game with Notts County looking for the U's to extend a super series of results that has seen his squad suffer just one defeat in their last 13 matches.

He added: "We might have only five games to play but we will be approaching the task as professionally as we always do.

"It doesn't matter whether we are safe from relegation or not, we will be looking for the same commitment over those five games as we always do. We must be professional to the very end."

Victory over the mid-table Magpies tomorrow will take the U's to within two points of their best-ever Second Division finish - the kind of form that has just yielded a manager-of-the-month award for Parkinson and his team.

The U's chief said: "I am delighted to have received such an award so early in my managerial career.

"When I first came here I would have been pleased for us just to have stayed up on goal difference.

"What has happened since has been beyond our wildest expectations."

Published Friday, April 11, 2003

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