John McGreal said he was happy with a “good afternoon’s work” after Colchester United eased to victory in their opening pre-season friendly.

The U’s won 2-0 at Bostik League division north outfit Maldon and Tiptree in their first warm-up game ahead of the new League Two season, which gets underway on August 5.

Goals either side of half-time from Doug Loft and Louis Dunne sealed victory for Colchester, for whom Craig Slater, Frankie Kent, Sammie Szmodics and Denny Johnstone all safely returned after playing at least 45 minutes each, having each missed a large chunk of last season through injury.

U’s head coach McGreal said: “The main concern for me is that the injury boys came through with no ill effects.

“It was a good game and nice to bring the club down to Maldon.

“We’ve got a good link-up and Kev (Horlock) and I have great support for each other and the team, so it was a good afternoon’s work.

“We’ll be kicking on again on Monday and it’s about getting those minutes.

“We’ve set out to do a lot of work in the first ten days and hit this game.

“Hopefully they’ve done that especially with the hot conditions and we’ll get some more minutes in the games coming up.

“We’ve had a good ten days of training and the injured boys have come back.

“It was a great exercise for them and Kev (Horlock) and his boys have put in a great shift.

“It was great to see the lads get that 45 minutes and 30 minutes, as we’ve divided the time up.

“We’ve come back in and there’s no ill-effects, so we can come back in on Monday and push on again.

“We have another game on Tuesday (at Needham Market) so the games are coming thick and fast for these boys.

“They were hot conditions and it was a sticky pitch – both teams could have done with a bit of water on it and I know Kev (Horlock) wanted to get his team passing as well but it would have just dried out given the heat!

“We could face conditions like that on the first day at Accrington, so it’s a matter of getting used to that as well.”

Luke Prosser and Kurtis Guthrie were present with the rest of the squad but did not feature for Colchester.

However, boss McGreal said they are nearing a point where they can take part in friendlies, having almost recovered from injuries sustained last season.

McGreal added: “It’s a case of being a little bit more patient with Kurtis Guthrie and Luke Prosser – Luke especially has been out a little bit longer than the other boys.

“Kurtis isn’t quite there but he’s telling us that he is!

“He’s a confident boy and we have to keep him a little bit back, for his own good really.

“They’re still putting a shift in with the work that they’re doing and it’s just about game time for them, especially in the next week or two when they’ll hopefully be playing.”

Colchester’s next pre-season friendly is at Needham Market, on Tuesday night.