Chris Porter feels Colchester United can build on their opening-day draw at Hartlepool United with the new League Two season now underway.

The U’s claimed a point in their curtain-raiser at Victoria Park, with Tom Eastman’s early opener cancelled out by Billy Paynter’s first-half penalty.

Colchester handed starts to four new signings against Pools and had five debutants on show, following a transitional summer following relegation from League One.

Porter says that may have played its part in the outcome but stressed that he expects the U’s to get stronger, as the campaign develops.

Porter told the Daily Gazette: “The first game is always hard - people are not quite fully match fit and adrenalin is high.

“People are nervous and it’s hard to gauge things after the first match.

“We’ve played better in pre-season at times but I thought we did OK.

“Hartlepool isn’t an easy place to come – it’s got to be up there with one of the toughest away games plus you have to consider the distance travelled as well.

“We have a lot of new faces who haven’t had a long time to gel and get to know each other’s games but we’re getting there and as time goes on, we’ll do well.

“I think things will settle down a bit now.

“The first game is hard because everyone is a little bit on edge, so it’s good to get it out of the way.”

Colchester were the more threatening of the two sides, with the likes of Sammie Szmodics, Kurtis Guthrie and Denny Johnstone all coming close to grabbing a winner for them before the end.

Porter said: “I thought that we were the better team, especially in the second half.

“We had the better chances and created a lot but we didn’t take them.

“I thought we started the first half well but they got the better of us in the 20 minutes leading up to half-time.”

Porter has now turned his attentions to Colchester’s League Cup first-round tie at Championship side Brighton and Hove Albion tomorrow night – and the experienced striker feels the tie is something they should relish.

He added: “It’ll be a great surface to play on and a nice stadium - it’ll be completely different to this (Hartlepool) game.

“We’ve done better against some of the bigger teams in pre-season, so hopefully we can continue that form.”