Denny Johnstone wants to nail down a place in Colchester United’s starting line-up – and has set his sights on a return to the venue where his season was cruelly cut short.

The 22-year-old is in line to feature in the U’s opening pre-season friendly at Maldon and Tiptree on Saturday, nearly five months after suffering a serious knee injury at Accrington Stanley.

Colchester return to the Wham Stadium for their League Two curtain-raiser on August 5 – and striker Johnstone says he would love to erase the painful memories of his previous appearance there and start the new campaign on a high.

Johnstone told the Daily Gazette: “My main aim is to work hard and stake a claim for a starting place at Accrington on the first day of the season.

“I want to be in the line-up and ready to challenge.

“I’m really looking forward to going back there.

“I remember I got a lot of stick from their fans at the time I suffered the injury, who thought I wasn’t injured - I got lots of abuse!

“I’d scored a goal just before I got injured at Accrington and I was starting to find my form, so I’ll be looking to take it from where I left off.

“I feel hungrier this pre-season, because of what happened with the injury.

“I feel really settled at Colchester – I love the boys here and we have a great team spirit.

“Everybody’s really looking forward to the season and pushing each other.”

Johnstone is back up and running after the setback of undergoing knee surgery for a torn cartilage.

The former Celtic youngster has been working hard on his fitness over recent weeks and is raring to go.

“It’s absolutely brilliant to be back,” added Johnstone, who scored twice in 32 appearances in his first season at the U’s, after joining them from Birmingham last summer.

“It’s been the longest pre-season of my short career so far and I’ve been itching to get back.

“I’ve been working hard over the summer; there are only certain aspects you can keep your fitness up to date with in the early part of the injury because you still have pain in your knee.

“But since we broke up at the end of last season, I’ve been able to do my running and I’ve been working hard.

“I’m looking to get my fitness up and making sure that psychologically, I’m quite happy with where my injury is.”

Colchester have appointed former Nottingham Forest and Southampton keeper Paul Smith as their new head of academy goalkeeping.

Smith had previously been coaching at Southend United and will now help the U's young shot-stoppers take their first steps in the game.

U's academy manager Jon De Souza told the club's website: “We have appointed someone who we believe is absolutely the right fit to push our goalkeepers from the Academy into the first team.

“We were looking for someone who had the right balance between playing and coaching experience, and we wanted to make sure took our time to find that person.

“With Paul’s playing experience over many years and the coaching he has been doing during his time at Southend, we believe he is the ideal person to do that job.

“Paul also stood out because he is keen to really develop and build his coaching career and we believe he will become an excellent coach for our young goalkeepers.”