Boss happy with latest acquisition.
Colchester United boss Tony Humes is excited about the potential of new boy Matthew Briggs, after the left back put pen to paper on Monday afternoon.
Matthew became the U's second defensive signing of the summer and Tony believes that with regular first team football, the Guyanese international can now really begin to make his mark.
"He has got a lot of the attributes we’re looking for and he showed at the end of the season that he’s improving with games," Tony said.
"You're looking at him fitting into the back four as an attacking left back and he has a real physicality and technical ability. He has got those attributes in abundance.
"He still needs to get better on some of the defensive parts of the game, but that will come through his knowledge and understanding of playing every week.
"He will gain confidence in playing regular football and get that consistency and, with all of his attributes, he's got real potential to push on."
The acquisition of Briggs means that the defensive unit that guided the U's to safety at the end of last season is again nearly complete.
And Tony added: "It will give us a bit of continuity, which we were looking for during the course of last season, and it is looking like a strong defensive unit when you also factor in Alex Wynter and Frankie Kent to come into that group.
"For both Matthew and Richard Brindley, it’s an opportunity to get regular football, which will push them both on in terms of performance and potential, which in turn will help us as a football club."
The U's players return for fitness testing at the end of this week, before joining together as a group next week.
With clubs around the country getting their boots on in the next fortnight, it is likely that transfer dealings will step up a notch and Tony is positive that the U's will add further faces soon.
He explained: "We’re looking close on two more and hopefully we will get the final say so in the next week or so.
"There are so many options out there and even those we believe we are close to will be talking to others, but I am confident that there will be two more signed before the players are back for pre-season.
"Our first priority was to sort the defensive unit out and then we can look at the other areas we need."