TED Collins has signed for Chelmsford City after being released by Colchester United.

The 21-year-old has joined the National League South side, following his exit from the U's last month.

Collins progressed through Colchester’s academy and made his first-team debut for the club at the age of 19 when he came on as a second-half substitute against Swindon Town in January, 2022.

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The Colchester-born keeper has also been on the bench for the U's first team on several occasions and has had loan experience at the likes of Maldon and Tiptree, Potters Bar Town and Haringey Borough.

Collins told the Chelmsford City website: "It's an exciting opportunity that Chelmsford have given me here.

"Looking at the club from last season and Robbie's plans going forward it's going to be a good year for everyone involved in the club.Β 

"Can't wait to get going now!"

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Chelmsford boss Robbie Simpson told the club's website: β€œWe thought long and hard this summer with what way we wanted to go with keepers.

"The loan market, in terms of keepers for us, has been really fruitful and we have had some amazing keepers from some amazing clubs.

"But ultimately, we’ve not managed to keep one of them for a whole season and that was a challenge, when that time came.

"So, we knew we wanted to have a keeper for a whole season this year and the only way in which we could guarantee that was to sign our own.

"Ted was high up the list when we decided to go down that route and, in actual fact, if he was to stay at Colchester and we looked for a loan be probably would have been on that list too – that obviously told us a lot.

"He is rated highly and I think that his departure from Colchester came at a bit of a surprise to a lot of people and we hope to be the beneficiaries of that.

READ MORE: Harry AndersonΒ returns to Colchester on permanent basis

"It is not the first time that we have taken a young player who has departed a Football League club that was a bit of a surprise and try to help them bounce back into the Football League and in return they become top performers for us.

"We are certainly hoping that Ted is a top performer for us and that we can help him bounce back into the football league.

"We are absolutely delighted to bring Ted to the football club and we are delighted to have our own goalie, our own number one and I can’t wait to get working with him!”