Colchester United chairman Robbie Cowling happy with start

The U's head to Rochdale tomorrow night looking to chalk up a second successive victory, having claimed a 2-1 win at Oldham Athletic last weekend.

Colchester have made a host of new signings this summer, as they look to revamp their squad to challenge in League Two this season.

Hayden Mullins (pictured below) is embarking on his first season as the club's permanent head coach and Mr Cowling says he is pleased with what he has seen, so far.

Mr Cowling told Col U TV: "I think it's been a really solid start. "The away form is very good at the moment; that's two tough games and four points.

"The home form, I think we've played well and I think we should have got something out of the Northampton game and the Mansfield game was a good game, against a very good team.

"I'm extremely pleased with the way that things are settling in.

"You can see that not everything has clicked straight away and Hayden has been playing around a little bit with the set-up that he wants, whether he wants three or four across the back - I leave those things to the people that know what they're doing!"

Meanwhile Mr Cowling is hoping Colchester fans will come and watch their future stars when they play academy games at Maldon and Tiptree, as part of the link-up between the two clubs.

Colchester's under-23 side will be playing a number of their games at the Jammers' Park Drive stadium, this season.

Mr Cowling said: "We're really lucky because we have a good association with Maldon and they've allowed us to play our Academy games there, when we can.

"The Premier League have allowed us to play our Academy games there so it works fantastically well for us and it works well for Maldon - it allows them to make a little bit more money for their own club.

"What will be really nice is that there will be some Maldon fans who will come and watch Colchester and they'll be some of our fans who will look to watch Maldon when Colchester are away.

"They've been doing that and we know that's been happening, over the last few years.

"They'll often see some of our youngsters who are on loan there and obviously Wayne Brown, who's associated with Colchester is managing there.

"It's a really good link-up.

"As we've seen more and more with Colchester, we've got youngsters coming into the team like Gene Kennedy.

"It would be appear he's come from nowhere but that's because fans haven't been able to come and watch the under-23s for the last year and a bit.

"What we really want is for you to come and watch the youngsters and you'll see what great players we've got coming through and you'll see more and more of them involved in the first team.

"Historically, our Academy games have been played between the stadium and Florence Park.

"I personally don't like them being played at Florence Park.

"It causes us a lot of operational problems, when they're played there.

"We're trying to keep that building as sterile as we can without people coming into the building.

"Coronavirus is still spreading itself around and some teams have been losing players.

"Harrogate have just had three games called off and I think Arsenal have been devastated by Coronavirus, even at their level so we've got to be careful."