COLCHESTER United head coach Hayden Mullins believes the club's travelling fans can play their part in their League Two curtain-raiser at Carlisle United.

The U's head to Brunton Park tomorrow aiming to get the new season off to a winning start, in Mullins' first competitive match as their permanent boss.

Colchester will this weekend have their fans at an away league game for the first time since March, 2020.

Ironically the last time they had supporters at an away ground was when they won 3-0 at Carlisle, prior to the Covid pandemic seeing games being played behind closed doors.

Plenty of Colchester fans are making the 630-mile round trip up to Cumbria this weekend - and Mullins says they can do their bit.

Mullins said: "It'll be great to see the fans there, especially up that way.

"We do need the support and we need that bit of help when we're going to be under a bit of pressure.

"It'll be great to see them back and hopefully, we can give them a result to be happy with."

Gazette:

Colchester are hoping to get the new season off to a flying start tomorrow and claim their first opening-day win since 2013.

The U's are looking for a big improvement in the 2021-22 campaign, following the struggles of the second half of last season.

"It's the start of the season and there's an excitement and a buzz there," said Mullins, who was appointed as the U's permanent head coach in May.

"We're looking strong and ready to go.

"We're chomping at the bit to go for Saturday and we can't wait.

"It's my first full-time post and it's going to be a big season for me and I'm looking forward to it.

"I think the staff we've got here will help me and complement me.

"It's a long season and we want to prepare as best we can."

Gazette:

Colchester had mixed fortunes against Carlisle, last season.

The U's beat the Cumbrians 2-1 at the JobServe Community Stadium in March but prior to that, had lost 3-2 at Brunton Park earlier in the campaign.

Mullins added: "Carlisle are a good club and they'll be a strong side.

"I'm sure they'll be high tempo and looking to get straight at us from the off.

"It'll be a tough game to start with but it'll be a typical League Two game and one that we'll prepare for and set up for to attack and do what we feel we can do to impose ourselves on the game.

"It's a good start, to get Carlisle out of the way now rather than a Tuesday night in December!

"It's slightly different with it being the first game but the one thing is that the manager is the same from last season, so we feel it might be similar in terms of how they went about things last season.

"But until you're five or ten games, everything is still kind of up in the air with things like set plays, so we have to be on our guard.

"We have to be prepared for any changes that we see."