Defender David Greene believes Colchester are back to winning ways in the wake of their triumph against his former team, Luton Town.

'We can go on and beat anyone in the New Year.'

That was Greene's challenge to the rest of the Second Division after helping the U's see off his old Kenilworth Road team-mates by three clear goals at Layer Road on Friday night.

He said: "It was great to beat Luton for the first time ever in a League game, but more importantly it was great just to win the match.

"Winning the match, albeit against ten men, has given all the lads a lot of confidence.

"We haven't always made the most of our chances before when playing against ten, but we had spare men all over the place this time and ran out very confident winners.

"It felt great going into the last ten minutes of a match three goals up and knowing the pressure was well and truly off.

"Everyone felt so confident after the game - I felt so good I could have played another match the next day - that we firmly believe we can go to Gillingham on Boxing Day and win that game."

Steve McGavin (two) and Jason Dozzell scored the all important goals that moved the U's another two places towards Division Two safety.

And Greene stressed: "Our aim is to get as far away from the relegation zone as we can and as we approach the second half of the season I believe we can now go on and beat anyone.

"It felt really good taking a two-goal lead for the first time in 13 months and I confidently believe we have now come through our bad patch."

The former Republic of Ireland Under-21 defender singled out Gavin Johnson, Joe Dunne and Joe Keith for special mention.

He said: "Joe and Joey were tremendous bombing up and down the flanks - it was great to have Joe Dunne back - while Gavin is so good at switching the play."

And of the 35th-minute handball incident that led to Luton's Efetobore Sodje being sent-off and Greene smacking the resultant spot-kick against the crossbar, he said: "Every time I've taken a penalty before I've just placed the ball and smacked it in.

"I had to wait so long for Sodje to leave the pitch after his red card that I changed my mind three times about where to hit the ball."

U's youth team's Eastern Junior Cup game against Newmarket Town, scheduled for Layer Road tonight, kick-off 7.45pm, has been postponed due to a frozen pitch.

Steve McGavin - put in a special performance against Luton, according to team-mate Greene

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