Colchester United signed Kwesi Appiah on loan from Crawley Town

Appiah, who joined the U's on a season-long loan last week, was a team-mate of the defender at Crawley Town.

The duo played at Broadfield Stadium together last season, before Dallison left to join Colchester in January.

Now the pair have been reunited at the U's - and striker Appiah admits Dallison made it clear he wanted a reunion.

Appiah said: "I'm going to call him Agent Dallo!

"He's been grafting, to be fair to him.

"He was on the blower quite a lot trying to convince me to come down.

"He knows as a friend of mine what my options were and was pushing for me to come here and I guess he's got it done in the end!

"I did speak to him a bit and I know John (Akinde) as well - he was my strike partner in the youth team (at Ebbsfleet) back in the day.

"Me and John go way back and I spoke to him about it, too.

"They both convinced me that this is where I should be so happy to have got it across the line."

STEVE BRADING (Image: STEVE BRADING)

Appiah has started Colchester's last two games since joining them on loan from Crawley.

The 32-year-old admits he has glad to be back involved again, having previously made only one substitute league appearance for the Red Devils this season.

"There were a couple of times this season where I wasn't involved in certain squads and it hurt, as a player who's committed to the club and wants to give my all for the club," said Appiah, who scored 12 goals in 29 appearances for Crawley, last season.

"It hurt a lot so that was hard and it's not an experience I wanted to last any longer than it did, hence why we moved this as quickly as we could to get something done.

"I'm happy now and looking forward to it.

"It's been made clear to me that my job is to come in and score goals and try and galvanize the troops as much as I can, with those goals.

"That's my plan - to work hard for the team, score as many goals as I can and just give everything for the team.

"That hunger should never leave you and when it does, I feel like you're not really committed to the game.

"I've got a lot to give and I've got the hunger to give everything to a team and I feel like I can do that.

"My numbers last season were good (for Crawley) and I wanted to build on that.

"It does help that I know League Two very well.

"I know the qualities I can bring to this team, so I'm confident that I'll be able to get the output that they need."

WWW.CU-FC.COM (Image: WWW.CU-FC.COM)

Appiah is now hoping to help Colchester build on their Papa Johns Trophy Group A win over Brighton under-21s this weekend, when they visit Barrow.

The former Crystal Palace youngster says he is excited for the challenge of what lies ahead, with the U's.

He added: "It's something I'm excited for.

"I've always looked at this squad in years gone by and thought 'wow, they've got a lot of good players here' and some good options.

"To add myself to that is nice and it's good to be part of a strong group.

"My first impressions of the training ground are fantastic and it's not something I expected.

"I'd never been here before so I didn't know what to expect and I'm really happy with what's going on here.

"Looking around, it's a nice club and I'm looking forward to exploring it a bit more."