Reid ‘Delighted’ To Join U’s

Colchester United’s latest recruit Paul Reid has revealed he is ‘delighted’ join the U’s.

Reid, 26, signed on a free transfer yesterday after being released by Barnsley a day earlier.

Despite captaining the Tykes to Championship promotion, Reid fell out of favour at Oakwell last season.

He told The Colchester Gazette: ‘I’m delighted – Colchester is a club that looks like it is going forward with the new ground and hopefully the new training ground.

‘And after talking to Geraint Williams, I made my mind up that I wanted to join Colchester.’

Carlisle-born Reid was also impressed by U’s boss Geraint Williams.

He added: ‘You make first impressions of people early on and after only a couple of minutes, I could tell Geraint is a very honest person.

‘From January onwards I’ve spoken to a lot of clubs but Colchester showed a lot of faith in me

‘By signing for them, I hope to pay them back.

‘I had four years at Barnsley and three of them were unbelievable.

‘But this last year has not really worked out for me the way I’d have liked.

‘I know that I can go back there and hold my head up high, knowing that I always gave it my all.

‘But it was time to move on.’

Reid, a former England under-19 international, conitnued: ‘I wouldn’t have come to Colchester if I didn’t think we were capable of challenging for promotion.

‘I don’t think I’d be speaking out of turn if I said that after talking to some of the guys already, they don’t want to be playing in League One.

‘We’re ambitious enough to want to help Colchester United get back into the Championship.’

We want to know your thoughts…