Colchester United boss John McGreal insists their opening-day trip to promotion favourites Notts County is a great way for them to kick off the new League Two season.

The U’s will get the 2018-19 campaign underway at Meadow Lane on August 4, against a Magpies side being tipped for success after missing out in the play-offs, last time around.

Colchester then host Port Vale on August 11 before a week later travelling to Mansfield Town, another side fancied for promotion.

The U’s round off a busy opening month of the campaign with back-to-back home matches against Crewe Alexandra (August 21) and Northampton Town (August 25).

McGreal said: “Notts County is a great game for us to start with.

"They’re one of the fancied teams and it will be a really good test.

"They had a positive season last year under Kevin Nolan and got to the play-offs, so I think it’s a great start for us.

“Then we have Port Vale, who are a big club in our league. They didn’t have the best of seasons last time but I am certain that Neil (Aspin) will get them going this year.

“It’s important for us to get off to a good start and we have two great games to look forward to.

“With signings we have made so far, I think we’re well placed already and I hope the fans are looking forward to it as much as I am.

“We’ve travelled well to Hartlepool and Accrington in the opening games of the last couple of years, so I am sure there will be plenty there with us this time.

“We did well away from home last year so we’ll be looking to build on that from the first match this season.”

Colchester finished 13th last season – 13 points short of the play-off positions – and McGreal says he expects his side to rise to the challenge.

“We have to bridge that gap between ourselves and other clubs in the division and we felt we needed to make a statement with our signings,” added the U’s boss.

“Our fans have been brilliant and we want to give them a bit of hope and show that we want to kick on.

“We finished a point off the play-off places in our first season in charge and last season, we just dropped off in the last couple of games.

“We really want to be competitive in our division and I think the signings so far show that and gives a lot of optimism to our fans that we’re going to give it a real go.”