Ex-Colchester skipper Dean Hammond is keen to take three points from the U’s – when he and his new side Southampton clash with the U’s tomorrow.
The box-to-box midfielder left the U’s in mid-August, for a fee of £400,000, which saw the U’s make a neat profit on a player who signed for £250,000. And Hammond revealed how he is especially looking forward to Saturday’s game.
‘I enjoyed my time there. I know a lot of the boys and have got some good friends there, so I’m looking forward to the game.
‘I’m a Southampton player now and I’m enjoying my time here so I’m just going to take each game as it comes, but I can’t wait for this one,’ he told the club’s official website.
Hammond, 26, made a lot of fans in his 18-month spell at the Weston Homes Community Stadium and is widely-expected to receive a warm welcome from the traveling army of U’s fans. I, for one, certainly wont be booing him – a player who always gave 100%.
He continued: ‘They are a good club, with some very good players and a new manager so I’m sure they’ll do fine. Aidy Boothroyd’s come in now and he’ll make his own changes, play the way that he wants to play and like I say, they’ll be a good test for us on Saturday.’
The former Brighton & Hove Albion man described the U’s as ‘a decent side’ but is hopeful of helping the Saints to their first win of the campaign.
‘The players will want to impress him and show him what they can do so that they can get into the team, which will make it that little bit harder for us, but we just have to concentrate on our own game,’ he explained, commenting on the arrival of Aidy Boothroyd, as the U’s new manager.
Hammond, who rejected a new contract with the U’s, before moving on, concluded: ‘I’m looking forward to seeing some of the boys that I haven’t seen for a while, but also to taking three points off them!’
To read Vital Colchester’s comprehensive preview of the game, click here.
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Agree with you about not booing, thanks Deano. See you tomorrow!!
…But after all that programme stuff – I think the stick he got was justified!
Would have to agree, as a fan, though it is about a career for them!