Colchester United head coach John McGreal says his side will have to “compete to earn the right to play” at Accrington Stanley tomorrow.

The U’s head to the Wham Stadium for their opening League Two game of the season looking to get the brand new campaign off to a winning start.

Colchester were beaten 2-1 at the venue last February, in a game where Denny Johnstone suffered a serious knee injury which caused him to sit out the rest of that season.

And boss McGreal says he is expecting a similarly difficult test this time around, from John Coleman’s side.

McGreal said: “It’s going to be tough at Accrington, we know that.

“We’ll have to compete to earn the right to play.

“John will have them at it and they play good football at times.

“They mix it up if they need to, as good teams do in division two.

“It’ll be a test for us tomorrow and one that we’ll be looking to get something from.

“They had a really big push towards the end of last season and similar to ourselves, just missed out on the play-offs and ran out of games in the end.

“We’ve looked at footage of them from pre-season and also bits of them from last season, as well.

“We know roughly what to expect but again, it’s what we do as well and how we perform.”

Colchester finished last season on a high with a six-game unbeaten run.

And McGreal is hoping that momentum will continue into the forthcoming League Two programme.

Colchester get underway at Accrington, looking to build on an impressive finish to the previous season where they missed out on a play-off spot by a single point.

McGreal said: “We’ve spoken to the boys from day one and they know what we’re looking to do.

“The main thing is to try and continue the momentum that we’d built up towards the end of last season and continue the rapport that we’ve got with the fans which was fantastic, throughout last season.

“Even at our friendly at Llandudno the other week, we had a few fans who travelled for a friendly which was fantastic!

“That support is brilliant and the way we can try and continue that is by winning games of football.

“We’ve mixed the teams around in pre-season and now it’s going to be a tough decision.

“But we know that we’ll be supporting each other because that’s the kind of group of lads they are.

“I’m playing a lot of cards close to my chest.

“It’s a work-in-progress with the boys that we’ve got coming in.

“We want young, vibrant hungry players who have maybe had a bit of a knock back.

“We’re in a good place with what we’ve got and the boys coming back from injury.

“I think we had seven come back from injury and they’ve done a lot of the work and are fighting fit.

“That’s been the pleasing aspect for me over the pre-season and hopefully we can go with a fully fit squad, which we didn’t have last season.”

Colchester got off to a flying start last time around, taking ten points from a possible 15 in their opening five League Two fixtures.

The U’s only defeat in the first month of last season was against Portsmouth, one of four teams to win promotion from the fourth tier.

Plymouth Argyle, Doncaster Rovers and Blackpool have joined Pompey in moving into League One this season but with the likes of Coventry City, Swindon Town and Lincoln City coming into the division, boss McGreal thinks the fourth tier will be an even harder proposition this year.

He said: “I think League Two will be a stronger division, this season.

“As much as we’ve lost the likes of Plymouth and Portsmouth, there are also big clubs coming into it either being promoted up or dropping down, so I think it’ll be really competitive.”