Tony Humes has set about the task of restoring the confidence of his Colchester United players, following his first full day in charge.

The newly-appointed U’s boss took training for the first time at Florence Park yesterday, after taking over from Joe Dunne in the hot seat.

Humes is keen to boost the morale of his players following a miserable start to the season, where they have failed to win any of their opening five league matches.

And as he prepares to take charge of his first game at Walsall this weekend, the new Colchester manager is keen to keep spirits up.

Humes said: “We need to keep them in the right frame of mind to go and perform on Saturday.

“It’s a case of building the confidence and the belief of the players - they are good players and their performances are good.

“It’s still early in the season.

“There’s only been one point on the board but I think the performances have warranted more than that.

“On the positive side, at least the team is playing to a decent standard.

“The results haven’t been fantastic or as good as could have been and that’s the one thing that we have to turn around.

“The scoring of goals and the conceding of them will ultimately affect the results.

“But if the performances continue to improve as they have done, it shows that it’s going in the right direction.”

Humes was an uncompromising defender during his playing days, where he clocked up more than 300 appearances for Ipswich Town and Wrexham.

The 48-year old is keen to see his team display a similar kind of determination and desire, as they go in search for their first League One victory.

But Humes says he also wants his side to maintain the same kind of passing football they had displayed under Dunne, in the opening weeks of the season.

“You want a resilient team,” added Humes, who was academy director at Wrexham before taking up a position within Ipswich’s youth set-up in 2001.

“Your ambition if you’re involved in football is to create a team that can do anything.

“You want a team that can play football, be resilient, deal with the physical side of the game but also be creative and play at a decent tempo.”

Humes has completed his first signing as U's boss after signing former Ipswich midfielder Byron Lawrence on a one-year deal.

For four pages of Colchester United coverage, including the views of Tony Humes, Robbie Cowling, Paul Abrahams and Bobby Hunt, see Wednesday's Daily Gazette.