colchester played their first game of pre-season on 12 july against brantham athletic. the u's won 4–1 with goals from dominic vose, jabo ibehre, freddie sears and dan holman. three days later they played heybridge swifts as triallist george moncur, david wright, and a brace from sears gave them a 4–0 half-time lead. in the second-half, they continued the scoring with goals registered by gavin massey, vose and an ibehre brace sealed an 8–0 win. they then put four past afc sudbury on 17 july with sears, drey wright, sammie szmodics and holman the scorers.