Platt targets promotion

Platt: Ambitious

Clive Platt believes it is vital for Colchester to bounce back up to the Championship after last season's transitional period.

The Us became a force to be reckoned with after Paul Lambert took the reins in October but finished off in mid-table, 13 points adrift of the play-off places.

Platt believes everything is in place for a promotion push and has targeted an improvement on their home form as the key ingredient, after a disappointing series of results in the new stadium last season

"It's a great place to play football, but we didn't have a great start in it and struggled last season at home," said the striker

"We couldn't avoid relegation at Layer Road and then moved to this stadium hoping to bounce back and if our home form was as good as our away form we would have gained promotion last season.

Long-term aim

"We will be trying to work on that this season and get more wins from our home fixtures, which will hopefully lead to more fans coming through the doors and getting this club back to where it wants to be, in the Championship.

"The chairman's long-term plans are to be a sustainable Championship club and I don't think that was possible at Layer Road because of the number of people we could get through the door.

"We couldn't really make a successful club in the second tier and now that the ground and training facilities have improved ten-fold we can hopefully return to the Championship with the intention of not being a struggling side in it."