Colchester United boss Hayden Mullins reckons Carlisle United will look to make a fast start in today's new-season opener.

The Essex outfit make the long trip to Brunton Park for the start of the League Two campaign.

And Mullins, now in permanent charge of the U's after an interim spell at the helm last season, expects Chris Beech's side to come out of the blocks quickly.

"Carlisle are a good club and they'll be a strong side," he said.

"I'm sure they'll be high tempo and looking to get straight at us from the off.

"It'll be a tough game to start with, but it'll be a typical League Two game and one that we'll prepare for and set up for to attack and do what we feel we can do to impose ourselves on the game.

"It's a good start, to get Carlisle out of the way now rather than a Tuesday night in December!"

Colchester lost 3-2 on their last visit to Carlisle in the 2020/21 campaign.

Mullins expects a similar approach from the Cumbrians to that they showed last term.

"It's slightly different with it being the first game, but the one thing is that the manager is the same from last season, so we feel it might be similar in terms of how they went about things last season," he added.

"But until you're five or ten games [in], everything is still kind of up in the air with things like set plays, so we have to be on our guard.

"We have to be prepared for any changes that we see."

Mullins has also called on Colchester's travelling fans to help his side in what is expected to be a good opening-day crowd.

"It'll be great to see the fans there, especially up that way," he added.

"We do need the support and we need that bit of help when we're going to be under a bit of pressure.

"It'll be great to see them back and hopefully, we can give them a result to be happy with."