Colchester United defender Ryan Jackson insists every squad member is desperate to impress with the new season less than a week away.

U’s head coach John McGreal will assess his options this week before selecting his starting line-up for their curtain-raiser at Accrington Stanley, on Saturday.

Jackson, who celebrates his 27th birthday today, is one of four new additions to the Colchester squad this summer and the former Gillingham right-back says everyone wants to make an impact.

Jackson said: “Everyone is pretty confident – we’re a fit young team and we’re raring to go.

“Everyone wants to impress, even the players on the bench who are itching to get a start.

“We’re all really confident and it’s looking good at the moment.

“We have a few players out injured at the moment but it’s still looking good.”

Jackson was on target against his old club Gillingham in Colchester’s final friendly of the summer, which the League One side won 2-1 last Friday.

The former Newport County and Macclesfield Town defender looks set to play as a right wing-back for the U’s at Accrington and he says it is a position he is very familiar with.

“First and foremost, I’m a defender but I like going forward as well,” he said.

“Adding goals to my game would help but it’s all about working on and getting into those positions and putting them away.

“I’ve played as a wing-back for most of my career – I played it at Newport, Macclesfield and Gillingham as well so it’s not anything new to me, to be honest.

“I kind of prefer it, because I think I’ve got the attributes going forward as well as defending - it suits me down to a tee, to be honest.

“I haven’t scored more goals than two a season but I’m looking to score more here, that’s my aim.”

Jackson admits it was an unfamiliar feeling playing for Colchester against his former club Gillingham.

He made 80 league and cup appearances during his two-year spell at Priestfield.

Jackson added: “It was a pretty strange experience playing against my old team so soon after leaving them.

“It was good to see some old faces but I’m a Colchester player now and it was a case of back to business.

“Fitness-wise, I think the boys are right up to speed.

“In the first half, we didn’t really seem ourselves both in and out of possession.

“But we obviously had words with the gaffer at half-time and in the second half, we kind of got it spot on and we played a lot better.

“As a whole, it was a fitness test and we were working on different things and we learnt from that.”