Colchester United’s home form this season will be paramount in their attempts to win promotion back to League One.

That’s the view of head coach John McGreal, who knows a strong record at the JobServe Community Stadium can hold the key to their success, this season.

Colchester play their first home game of the new League Two campaign this afternoon when they host Port Vale (kick-off 3pm).

McGreal is keen for his side to recapture their home form of the 2016-17 season, where they won 14 league games there and boasted the joint-best home records in the division.

McGreal said: “The home form is crucial for any team, whether you’re talking about the likes of Man City right the way through to where we are in division two.

“It’s paramount in trying to get success in any division that you’re in and hopefully come Saturday, our fans will be out in numbers and we can try and get that South Stand going and keep us where we think we can be this season.

“We’re really looking forward to it, because there’s nothing better than playing football at home.

“Even with the two home friendlies we played against Millwall and Gillingham, you could just feel that football was round the corner.

“I’m sure there’ll be a few butterflies for the fans knowing that it’s the first home game and it’s one everyone looks forward to.

“The onus is on us because we’re at home – they’ve had a good win at home last weekend.

“How are they going to approach the game? I don’t really know but we’ve had them scouted and watched.

“It’s about what we try and do and how we try and implement our style of play.”

McGreal wants his Colchester side to follow up their creditable opening-day draw at Notts County with another positive result today.

He said: “Everyone is fit and well which is good news and not having a midweek game has helped us have that clean bill of health, after last weekend.

“The boys are really looking forward to the first home game of the season and it’s good to go into it on the back of a good, strong performance against Notts County.

“We’ve carried a good 20 players in the squad throughout pre-season and we’ve felt as though we’ll need every one of them.

“I’ve said before that it’s a tough couple of months in this league, with the Carabao Cup and Checkatrade Trophy games coming in.

“It’ll be tough to keep that squad together but we know we can only go with 18 or 19 players, each week.”

Colchester’s opponents Port Vale go into the game on the back of an impressive 3-0 triumph over Joe Dunne’s Cambridge United, on the opening day of the season.

McGreal added: “Port Vale have got a good squad – I know he’s tried to improve it but he’s got some really good experience there.

“I know Neil (Aspin) and Gary (Brabin) want to do particularly well and they already have, as they had a terrific start last week against Cambridge.

“They’ve been down in our division for a year and they’ll feel as though they know what the division is about.

“We will try and stop them but also, keep playing the way that we want to play.”