He thought his chance might have passed, but Harvey Knibbs was delighted to score his first goal for Cambridge United against Scunthorpe.

The 20-year-old, making his league debut, was in the right place to tap the ball home after a lovely cushioned pass from Paul Lewis in the second half against the Iron.

It caps off a successful week for the former Villa youngster, who scored the winning penalty in last week’s League cup tie against Brentford on his competitive debut, before making his Football League debut at Colchester a few days later.

The striker had to work for his first senior goal, however, with Scunthorpe keeper Rory Watson making a superb stop, while several half-chances also passed him by.

“It’s always nice to score, especially on your full debut and hopefully that can kick me on,” he said.

“First senior start, first senior goal, so not a bad start!

“I thought it wasn’t going to happen for me today, especially when the goalie plucked that out the top corner in the first half, but as a striker you’ve just got to keep going and not let in affect your confidence.”

Knibbs’ goal was followed up moments later by Lewis to give United the lead for the first time in the game.

Colin Calderwood’s side shot themselves in the foot with poor defending from set pieces all game, and Rory McArdle bagged his second for the 10-men Iron after a free-kick, before Lewis struck again to seal the three points.

“At half time [when they were trailing 1-0] we were just trying to be positive and saying that we’ve played really well and let ourselves down from a lack of concentration, and that’ll punish you at this level,” he said.

“We came out, kept doing what we were doing and got the breakthrough.”

He added: “It was a very tough game, we knew it was going to be tough.

“When a team get a sending off sometimes it makes it even tougher in games because they sit back and they scored two sloppy goals off set pieces.

“But you can see the team collective we’ve got this year to fight back twice and go onto win the game.”

And after overcoming a heel injury which kept him sideline for most of pre-season and the opening fixtures, Knibbs said he is enjoying his time in CB5.

He said: “It’s been a dream start to be fair. I was unfortunate to get injured in pre-season and miss five weeks, but hopefully I can keep helping the boys.”