Fiacre Kelleher: Colchester defender adds 'strong voice' to team
- Published
Fiacre Kelleher (left) began his career with Scottish giants Celtic
Colchester defender Fiacre Kelleher expects the team to kick on positively after scoring in his first game of the season for the League Two club.
The 3-0 win at Gillingham ended a run of three successive defeats at the start of the new campaign.
And Kelleher fired the opening goal after being sent on as a substitute for injured Nico Lawrence.
"The bar has been set in terms of the intensity and concentration that needs to be there every week," he said.
The 27-year-old Irishman has had injury problems of his own and was included in the matchday squad by boss Ben Garner after limited training time.
He told BBC Essex Sport: "I just started training with the group on Tuesday (last week) so I've had about four days.
"I played 45 minutes pre-season, so I felt a little bit sluggish but I think I can add other little bits like being a strong voice and a bit of a leader, that's something I can just do naturally.
"I just tried to be as loud as I could, really."
Kelleher's goal, after Gillingham failed to clear a corner, was his third for the club, having joined from Bradford City in January.
"I said to Joe Taylor 'I'll take care of the scoring today', I said that to him on the bus," he said.
"When I'm in and around the box, since I've come to Colchester, I've just found that little bit of luck."
Colchester are next in action on Saturday with an away game against Walsall, who have also only won one game so far.
"The good thing is we know where the problems are and where they have been in the performances," Garner added.
"If we were at full strength, with everyone we want to recruit in the building, and everyone fit and playing how we want to play and these results were happening, there'd probably be some alarm bells ringing.
"We've gone through a difficult period but we're only going to get better from here on in and need to be judged at the end of the season, not at this stage."