Cole Kpekawa says he wants to rediscover his “mojo” at Colchester United – and insists he does not see League Two football as a step down.

Kpekawa is in line to start for the U’s in their curtain-raiser at Accrington Stanley on Saturday, after joining them on a one-year contract from Barnsley for an undisclosed fee, last month.

The 21-year-old defender has dropped down two division to join Colchester, with whom he had a brief loan spell during the 2014-15 campaign.

And despite swapping Championship football for the fourth tier, Kpekawa has high hopes for the forthcoming season with his new club.

Kpekawa told the Daily Gazette: “I feel comfortable here and it’s a good place to play games and get my mojo back.

“I don’t see it as a step down – I see it as a platform to get going again, play more games and hopefully play as many games this season as I can.

“I had a little bit of hesitation about dropping down to League Two.

“But I’ve been at Colchester before and it’s a good club.

“We want to get automatic promotion and the play-offs as a minimum.

“We’re aiming high and I feel with the team that we’ve got here, we can definitely achieve our goal.

“Colchester isn’t really a League Two team – it’s a League One team or even higher.

“We have great talent and from watching last year and seeing it for myself now, I would say we definitely we play the best football in our league.

“It suits my game too and it’s the same kind of style – everyone wants to play football here.

“If a team wasn’t playing my kind of style, I probably wouldn’t have signed.

“But because they want to play how I want to play, I think that I’ll fit in nicely and help the team as well, which is the main thing.”

Kpekawa is looking to get his career back on track, following a disappointing spell at Barnsley.

The left-sided player managed just seven league appearances for the Tykes after joining them from QPR for a fee reported to be in the region of £450,000, last summer.

He added: “It started off very well for me at Barnsley.

“I played a few games but things just didn’t go to plan really.

“But that’s water under the bridge for me now and I just have to crack on here and hopefully have a good season.

“I feel ready for the new season.

“You have to be super fit if you play in the wing-back position but I’m on the right road to get there and it’s going well, so I’m working hard.

“I’ll play anywhere really, wherever I’m told – as long as I’m playing, I’m happy.

“Training has been good since I’ve been here and I’ve been doing extra stuff with the fitness guy.

“It’s going well – I’m doing a little bit extra to catch up but so far, so good.

“I think the boys are happy that pre-season is out of the way now and they’ve worked hard.

“Everyone looks fit and is ready for the season to start now.

“We’ll be looking to put our foot on the gas and go from there.”