Let's make it a happy home

I’M really looking forward to our first home game of the season against Port Vale on Saturday and hopefully making my first league appearance, at the stadium.

I don’t care how well we play, as long as we get the three points.

A couple of the lads have mentioned that our stadium doesn’t always get packed out but we need everyone together and it would be great if people could come and support us.

The Colchester fans that came to Notts County last weekend were absolutely fantastic.

Everyone wants to see a winning team and it works both ways – we need them and they need us.

I think it will be a bit different on Saturday, in that the onus will be more on us being the home team and I’m looking forward to seeing how we deal with that pressure.

It would be great for us to take four points from our first two games and that’s what we’ll be aiming to do.

Training has been very positive this week and everyone’s been buzzing – that’s what it’s been like all summer.

I’m experienced enough in the game to know that it’s not always going to be like that and there will be bad results along the way from time to time.

But it’s really important we react to those setbacks in the right way, if we’re to be successful.

We’ve had a good pre-season and an encouraging start but it’s a young squad and the staff won’t let us get carried away.

We wanted to set down a marker on the opening day of the season with a good performance and result at Notts County and that’s what we did.

There was a lot of talk about them being promotion favourites and being up there, at the end of the season.

I think we can come out of it with a lot of confidence and I thought that we were the better team.

The boys were feeling a bit down after the game and in some ways, it felt more like a defeat afterwards because we knew that we had a chance to win.

On a personal note, I was pleased with the way that I played.

I had a good chat with the gaffer beforehand and he feels I can play in the four, eight or ten role.

I played in a certain role last Saturday and I’m really impressed by the way that the gaffer has used his tactics.

He can switch to different tactics both before and during games and it’s really impressed me that such a young squad can change and adapt to that so well, as I’ve never really had that before.

The group is very together – the pre-season training camp we had in Cheshire was absolutely fantastic and really brought us together.

The new boys sang their songs, we watched the England game and it was a great trip away for the squad.

I sang a little Oasis number – Don’t Look Back in Anger.

I used my experience in that I got up and did mine first, so that I could get it out of the way!

It got a mixed reaction from the boys but I thought it was good!

Cup return

ALL of my focus at the moment is on our game at Port Vale, at the moment.

But after that, I’m looking forward to heading back to my old club Cheltenham Town for our Carabao Cup first-round tie, next Tuesday night.

I hope I’ll get a good reception!

It’ll be good to go back there and see some familiar faces but I’ve moved on now and fully behind what we’re doing, at Colchester.

Kane is class

KANE Vincent-Young signing his new contract with us really is great news.

I think it’s a massive signing.

As soon as I first came into the training ground, I could see his quality a mile off and he’s a great kid, too.

Kane will 100 per cent be playing at a higher level one day and hopefully, that will be with us.

I said the same when I signed for Colchester earlier this summer – I’m not looking at my three-year contract thinking of us staying where we are.

I want to get promoted with Colchester and I want that to happen as quickly as possible.

Deadline delight

IT’S transfer deadline day today and I love seeing all the Premier League moves take place.

It’ll be lovely this year, as I’ll sit there with my feet up with a cup of tea watching it all unfold!

I’ve been involved in it myself in the past, when I moved from Hereford to AFC Wimbledon.

I also went up to Blackpool and spoke to them about a possible move and had a five-hour medical but for whatever reason, didn’t sign.

From a player point of view, it’s a nightmare!

There are so many people involved and the phone doesn’t stop going, with people like agents and press wanting to know what’s going on.

You get linked somewhere and then you get about 300 calls from people asking what’s going on, especially in the age of social media!

It’s nice to be recognised but there’s so much to it and moving clubs, especially with things like moving house is involved and 95 per cent of it is in other people’s hands.

It was nice to get the move to Colchester so early in the summer – I knew that they had been interested in me in the past and I wanted to get it sorted as quickly as I could.

The gaffer told me he was going to bring in other new faces of a certain calibre and I put my trust in him and he’s backed that up with the signings that have been made.

I'm football mad!

I DRIVE my family mad in that if there’s a chance of watching football, I will.

I’m really looking forward to the new Premier League season starting tomorrow night and as a Chelsea fan, I’m hoping it will be a successful one for them.

I’m like any other fan really in that I expect them to win every game but I don’t really know what to expect, though.

I don’t think you can look too far past Manchester City – they were impressive last season and in Pep Guardiola, they have the best manager in the world.

It will be tough for any side in the Premier League to beat them.

Sammie's a mini me

OVER the course of my career, I’ve made some great friends in football.

Sammie is already one of them and he’s like my little brother.

I call him my mini me – I can really see myself from four or five years ago in him.

It’s great because when I get to the training ground, he’s waiting for me to give me a cuddle and he’s always offering to make me a cup of tea!