SHAMAL George says he is loving life in Colchester United’s starting line-up.

The 23-year-old goalkeeper has had to be patient for his opportunities at the U’s since joining them from Premier League champions Liverpool, last summer, with Dean Gerken first choice.

George, who has been named in the League Two Team of the Week following his fine performance against Cheltenham Town at the weekend, admits it he had a testing time after joining Colchester.

But he has now started their last three games, taking his overall appearance tally for the season to 16 and helping them to the brink of League Two safety.

And after producing a man-of-the-match display in the defeat at Cheltenham, the 6ft 2in shot-stopper says he is enjoying his latest spell in Hayden Mullins’ side.

George said: “I love being in the team.

“At the start it was very difficult but I feel very comfortable with the team and I feel like they trust me and I trust them.

“It’s really good to be in the team and get minutes under my belt.

“I was at Liverpool and hadn’t played too many league games before joining Colchester.

“I think it was my 12th or 13th start (at Cheltenham) which is what I need at my age, getting games under my belt and push on.

“When Hayden came in, I was quite close to him.

“He’s a nice guy and he’s helped me a lot.

“He’s kept pushing me when I was disappointed and got brought out of the team and I was made up when he was made manager.

“He’s been very good since he came in and the boys are working very hard for him.”

George pulled off a string of impressive saves in Colchester’s 1-0 reverse at league leaders Cheltenham.

However, he was unable to prevent Conor Thomas from bagging a scrappy late winner for the Robins, at the Jonny-Rocks Stadium.

The defeat left Colchester in 20th spot, six points above the relegation zone with two games remaining against Salford City and Tranmere Rovers.

“I’m happy with my performance but in a way, it counts for nothing because we didn’t get anything from the game,” said George, who signed a two-year deal with Colchester after joining them last August.

“The only thing it’s done is moved us above Scunthorpe on goal difference.

“I was glad to play my part and hopefully, we can get something next week against Salford.

“We can be confident going into next week and hopefully, we can carry on our home form from where we won our previous two games.

“Football is a rollercoaster and you get ups and downs.

“If we can get the win against Salford, it will be a big weight off our shoulders.”

Cheltenham, who are on the verge of League Two promotion, were the better side against Colchester but left it late to bag their winner through Thomas.

George added: “Everyone’s gutted but you can see why they are where they are.

“The boys gave everything but obviously they scored with a scrappy goal.

“The boys are gutted but we’ll go again.

“You could tell that maybe the goal was coming from a set piece, because we didn’t look dangerous from other attacks except for the shot at the end.

“I got a hand on it for their goal but it wasn’t enough – it was a scrappy goal.

“We had defended every set piece well until that one and everyone was gutted to concede a goal like that and not take a point.

“For a goalkeeper, it’s a bit awkward when they’re throwing the ball into the box and there’s bodies everywhere and they’re giants.

“It was a tough game and they deserved it – we can be gutted about the result but overall, they deserved to win.

“We can’t be too disappointed because I thought we dug in, against a very good team.”