John McGreal believes today's Open Day showed the feel-good factor currently evident at Colchester United.

Hundreds of people flocked to the JobServe Community Stadium for the annual event, which took place in scorching conditions.

Colchester's first-team squad took part in a training session on the pitch and signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans, while head coach John McGreal and chairman Robbie Cowling also took part in a question and answer session.

The squad also had their team picture taken with their new home and away kit, ahead of the 2018-19 League Two campaign which starts next month.

McGreal said: “With the weather as it was, the fans could have done something different with beer gardens and barbecues but credit to them – they’ve come out in numbers today to look at the show that we put on for them.

“I’ve got the players mingling with the fans and there’s no us and them – we want everybody together.

“We’ve got to bridge the gap in division two.

“We’ve been here three years but we have to bridge it and that’s everybody together.

“Days like this make it more pivotal and when you look at the fans, there’s a real feel-good factor.

“I think the signings have definitely helped and there was a big push by Robbie and Tony to get those players on board, early on.

“We did a lot of early hard work in the season and in the off season.

“We’ve tried to bring that togetherness every year but this year, even more so.

“We’re looking at days like this doing that, as do early signings.

“We’ve tried to look at things to try and get more fans to come out and see there’s something good going on at Colchester, watching sessions and mingling with the fans and getting pictures and autographs."