AN 11-YEAR-OLD Colchester United fan will have the honour of taking out the match ball in the team's first game of the new season.

Connor Cosgrove, from Manningtree, is amongst 72 lucky fans marking the occasion after being one of the first to have a piece sharing why he loves football on the EFL's website.

As part of its EFL Stories campaign, which launched this month, Connor will deliver Col U's new Mitre football at the debut home league game against Cambridge United tomorrow.

The future Manningtree High School pupil and his dad Mark, 43, are now huge fans of the team after a collaboration with Autism Anglia.

Colchester Utd joined with the charity last summer so its staff could undergo autism awareness training.

Connor has Asperger syndrome, which can make stimulating days out challenging, but the care he received from staff meant he was stress-free for his first match in February against Swindon.

Mr Cosgrove said: "Connor paints a picture of where he's going to prepare himself and our job as parents, my wife Claire and I, is to make sure the picture he's painted, matches up.

"We came to the ground on a non-match day to see about booking a stadium tour for Connor.

"But a fantastic lad at reception offered us one there and then, which we thought was fantastic, as it helped him visualise what was going to happen later.

"They also recommended the row E5 for us as it's not too crowded so that's where Claire and I, plus his six-year-old sister and uncle, will be sat cheering him on.

"He'll be giving the referee the ball before the match, but he feels chilled about it because we went to an open day last season so he recognises a lot of the players."

Thousands of people will learn of his story as they also press play on players, managers, club staff and mascot's favourite memories.

However, Connor is not fazed by the attention.

Mr Cosgrove added: "On the day he took part in the pre-publicity, he was more roped up in the Sky Sports cameramen who loved Connor and showed him how everything works.

"He also met Roman Kemp, who's a presenter on Nick Kicks, so he tuned everything else out."