Sammie Szmodics says he would love to fire his home town club Colchester United to promotion this season.

The former Stanway School pupil, who has been at the U’s since the age of seven, will be hoping to get the brand new campaign off to a winning start tomorrow when they head to Accrington Stanley for their League Two curtain-raiser.

After an injury-ravaged campaign last time around, Szmodics is hoping to provide the firepower for Colchester’s promotion charge, under head coach John McGreal.

And the Colchester-born attacker says he would like nothing more than to score the goals that help the U’s achieve their first promotion since 2006.

Szmodics said: “It would be fantastic to help Colchester win promotion, this season.

“I supported Colchester as a kid so it would be great to win promotion, either automatically or through the play-offs.

“It’s such a tight-knit group this year, more than last year.

“There’s a lot more people the same age and we’re all friends off the pitch and on it, too.

“We’re all willing to learn and do well so fingers crossed, we do well.”

Szmodics made 23 appearances for Colchester last season and scored five times but his campaign was cut short by injury.

The 21-year-old is naturally hoping for an uninterrupted campaign this time around – and one where he can be a regular.

“I want to make the number ten position my own,” said Szmodics, who netted three times in Colchester’s opening seven league games, last season.

“I haven’t had a full professional season because of the injuries so I’m hoping that’s the case, this season.

“Last season for me was terrible - I came back from a broken ankle and three games later, I broke my leg so I can’t wait to start.

“I didn’t have many positives last season but the goals I scored against Wycombe and Cambridge were great.

“I was in the gym a lot last year but that was just building up the leg again.

“Over the summer, I’ve been building up my cardio and my fitness a lot but I’ve come back raring to go.

“I’ve got minutes under my belt over pre-season and getting used to the football again and playing with new signings.

“My first tackle after my broken leg was actually in training – Lewis Kinsella absolutely smashed me!

“I think that was on the second day of pre-season so when I got through that, I knew I was OK.”

Szmodics admits Colchester face a tough test when they take on Accrington tomorrow.

But he insists they will be heading to the Wham Stadium in search of three points, to send them into their big Carabao Cup tie against Aston Villa next Wednesday.

Szmodics added: “It’s good to get Accrington out of the way because we know that by Christmas, their pitch will be terrible!

“We will know what to expect up there and it’s going to be a difficult game.

“Hopefully we can get the win up there and look forward to playing Villa.”