Kyel Reid says he spoke to former Colchester United manager Phil Parkinson before joining the U’s on a six-month loan deal.

The 29-year-old left-winger has arrived at the Weston Homes Community Stadium from fellow League Two rivals Coventry City and is in line to make his debut against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup, tomorrow night.

Reid played at both Charlton Athletic and Bradford City under Parkinson, who guided Colchester to a historic promotion to the second tier, in 2006.

The former West Ham United youngster said the current Bolton Wanderers boss spoke highly of his old club.

Reid told the Daily Gazette: “I spoke to Parky about it and he thought moving to Colchester would be a good move for me and said they’re a great club.

“I played under Parky at Charlton and Bradford and get on very well with him, so it’s good to get his opinion on things and I ran it past him.

“Moving to Colchester had been something that had been on the cards for a while.

“I spoke to the gaffer (John McGreal) two weeks before they came back for pre-season – I had a chat with him about his plans for the new season and he told me how he wanted to improve, having just missed out on the play-offs by a point last season.

“It was a good meeting with him about what he wants and how he wants the team to play and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Reid was keen to make the move to Colchester, after finding himself out of favour at the Ricoh Arena.

The ex-Charlton attacker appeared for the Sky Blues on 26 occasions, scoring once but is now raring to go for their League Two rivals.

“The main thing for me is to get games under my belt,” said Reid, who will be ineligible to play for Colchester when they travel to play Coventry, on October 21.

“I could have stayed at Coventry but my playing time would have been limited there and it’s good to go out and play.”