Colchester boss Steve Ball praised his hat-trick hero Jevani Brown after their 3-1 triumph over Stevenage.

Brown gave the U’s took an 11th minute lead, stabbing home from close range following Callum Harriott’s cross into the six-yard box.

Stevenage were level four minutes later through Marcus Dinanga but Brown restored Colchester’s lead in the 57th minute when he bent the ball past Jamie Cumming.

And he completed his hat-trick with nine minutes remaining, heading in Cohen Bramall’s cross.

Ball said: “Jevani had a tough year, last year and there were lots of reasons behind that.

“His loan period at Forest Green didn’t go great and he was injured but he’s one of our highly technical players.

“Every day in training, I see levels from him that he should know himself are far beyond this level so it’s important that he keeps that up.

“He’s a cultured finisher; he doesn’t smash it and there’s no real power but he often finds the corners with a nice, caressed finish. He’s a highly technical finisher.

“We’ve had really good home form and that’s four out of five home wins now.

“If you’re being hyper-critical you could possibly say that their goal was pretty sloppy from our point of view, to give away a penalty cheaply.

“But we played exceptionally well and dominated the game from start to finish – we could and should have scored more.”

Colchester were worthy winners and their margin of victory might have been greater, with Harriott hitting the woodwork and Kwame Poku’s deflected shot hitting a post.

Stevenage boss Alex Revell admitted it was a frustrating night.

Revell said: “They were really disappointing goals to concede.

“We’ve been really solid in that department and I felt like they caused us problems all game.

“The goals are really disappointing from our point of view, from two crosses and not marking probably the only player in the box.

“Their second goal came from us not winning the first ball and the same player runs in behind us and scores the goal.

“It was really disappointing but I think Colchester were probably the best side that we’ve played so far.

“The lads have got the desire and they’re not a team that gives up.

“We got back into the game away from home which we still were even though there aren’t fans and it’s a tough place to come.

“We came in at 1-1 and I thought we’d weathered the storm and got the penalty but their second goal killed our momentum.”