Right-back Jacob Hanson capped an excellent personal performance with the final goal as Town Under 21s beat Colchester United 4-0 in their opening game of the Professional Development League II season.

Hanson – one of the second-year Scholars in Frankie Bunn’s team – raided into the penalty area from the right, gliding past two would-be tacklers before slipping his shot past visiting keeper Chris Lewington.

His strike came in the third minute of added time and rounded off a terrific performance from Town, who took control with three goals in the first half.

Flo Bojaj opened the scoring on 12 minutes, taking advantage of a rebound after Ronan Coughlan had put second-year Rekeil Pyke through on goal.

Phil Billing extended the lead after 28 minutes, placing the ball into the corner from the edge of the box after Duane Holmes – whose shot forced the corner – had created the chance from the half-cleared flag-kick.

Colchester had barely had time to recover when they were three down, Pyke applying the finishing touch after solid build-up work from Bojaj.

The visitors improved in the second half, but it still took them until the hour mark to force Lloyd Allinson – the only over-age player in Town’s line-up – into a save as he pushed away a long-range shot from Louis Dunne.

Town: (4-4-2 diamond): Lloyd Allinson; Jack Senior, Fraser Horsfall, Joe Wilkinson, Jacob Hanson; Philip Billing, Duane Holmes (Regan Booty, 66), Sondre Tronstad, Ronan Coughlan (Jack Boyle, 70); Flo Bojaj, Rekeil Pyke (Liam Coogans, 79). Subs not used: Ed Wilczynski, Danny Kane.