COURTNEY Senior seems to have developed a handy knack of scoring against Port Vale.

So the Colchester United attacker is naturally hoping that the welcome trend continues at Vale Park tomorrow.

Senior opened the U’s scoring account for the current campaign when he bagged their opener in a 2-0 triumph over the Valiants, in their first home game of the season back in August.

And the 21-year-old was also on target when John McGreal’s side played out a 2-2 draw in the last trip to Vale Park, last January.

Senior returned to Colchester’s starting line-up against Notts County last weekend for the first time in five games, playing a big part in two of their three goals scored in the 3-3 draw.

Now the former Brentford youngster wants to produce that kind of form again this weekend, against opponents he has scored against in each of the sides' last two meetings.

“I scored against Port Vale at home earlier in the season,” said Senior.

“They’re good memories and hopefully I can try and get another goal, on Saturday.

“I try to make a difference out there, whether it’s by scoring or helping someone else score.

“It was good to start (against Notts County) – we were a little bit disappointed to only draw but we fought back well to get a point.

“There must have been a reason why I wasn’t starting the last few games but I’ve just tried to work hard and do my stuff off the pitch and in training to try and get back in the side.

“I got the assist and won the penalty, so that was good.

“It means a lot to get the assists and I need to carry on getting my numbers, my assists and goals.”

Colchester are aiming to secure their first win in five matches tomorrow when they travel to play a Port Vale side who are without a home league victory since October.

The U’s are only outside the play-off places on goal difference and Senior is hoping they can get back into the top seven.

“Getting three points and a win against Port Vale would kick-start us again and we can hopefully carry on pushing on from there,” added Senior, who has made 28 league and cup appearances for Colchester so far, this season.

“We’ve had a little blip now and we’ll push on now and try and get into the top three.

“Teams have done their analysis on us; they bank off and try to counter us so we have to try and find a way to beat teams.

“We’ve been working on things in training so hopefully, we can go to Port Vale and win this weekend.

“The group is very tight and we’ve got a good bond.

“There’s a bit of frustration that we haven’t got the results we’d have liked recently but we try to stay together and block that out and keep working hard in training to get the rewards.

“We’ve been having short training sessions recently because there’s been a lot of games, so it’s been nice to have a full week to prepare and training has been very sharp.”