Colchester United head coach John McGreal is urging his players to carry on from where they left off last season.

McGreal is delighted to see the likes of Luke Prosser, Kurtis Guthrie and Denny Johnstone back in the fold in pre-season after their long-term injury lay-offs, last season.

The U's are still on the lookout for reinforcements, following the departure of the likes of George Elokobi, Richard Brindley and Chris Porter, this summer.

But after finishing last season on the back of a six-game unbeaten run, the U’s boss is confident that by the time the big kick-off arrives his squad will have what it takes to make a strong challenge again this time around.

McGreal said: “I’m really looking forward to the new season, especially after the way that we finished the last one.

“It’s great to see all of the injured boys back in as well.

“They all seem comfortable to back into training, which is great news and that was our target, to get these boys back. It’s a case of getting everyone back as a group in pre-season.

“We feel as though we’ve got a really good squad – we want that competitiveness that we had last season even when we had those injuries.

“The younger boys came in and helped keep that going - Cameron James came out of the under-23s and did really well and has now moved into our group.”

Colchester play their first pre-season friendly of the summer on Saturday when they take on Bostik League division one north side Maldon and Tiptree.

They also play warm-up games against Ipswich Town, a West Ham XI, Gillingham, Llandudno, Braintree Town and Needham Market prior to their League Two curtain-raiser at Accrington Stanley, on August 5.

“It’s a great run of friendly fixtures for us,” said McGreal.

“We always try and tie in a couple of the local clubs, not least to put the Colchester United brand around because we feel we have something good going on here.

“Then we have a nice little trip away to Carden Park which was excellent last season with the facilities and then we have the good games at home, finishing with the Gillingham game on the Friday (July 28).

“It’s a great game for us – they’re a tough League One team looking to push on from where they left off.

“They just avoided relegation so I’m sure Ady (Pennock) will be trying to get his team going, too.”