COLCHESTER United youngsters Samson Tovide and Benny Bioletti have signed their first professional deals with the club.

Tovide already has experience of playing in League Two with the U's, having made 11 appearances for them last season.

The 18-year-old made his Colchester debut at the age of 16 when he featured for the club in their 6-1 Papa John's Trophy win over Southend United in November, 2020.

Tovide told the U's website: "I'm very happy - I've worked hard coming from Leyton Orient, and I've made it into the first team, and now I can't wait to get started.

"I want to get as many games as possible, and as soon as the time comes I need to take my chance."

Gazette:

Bioletti has also penned his first professional deal with Colchester.

The defender spent time on trial within the U's academy last season, having spent his entire footballing career with non-league club Faversham Town.

Bioletti said: "I'm over the moon, coming from Faversham Town to a professional club, it's a big step, but I think I'm ready for it.

"I made it into the first team at Faversham when I was 15, so from then I felt I wanted to take it more seriously, and it has panned out as I wanted it to."

Meanwhile, Colchester have today officially launched their season-ticket software.

Fans have been snapping up their season tickets for the new 2022-23 campaign.

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In a statement on the U's website, U's chairman Robbie Cowling said: "I hope everyone is enjoying their summer but also looking forward to the new season.

"Today, we launched our new ticketing software and by midday we have already sold 250 season tickets of which forty-one have taken the option to pay monthly.

"Although today is the official launch of the new ticketing software some of you did discover, as we hoped you would, that we actually released it on the quiet yesterday.

"I took the decision to do that because even though the new site looks quite similar to the old site it is completely new software, hosted on completely new hardware which is located in a completely different location.

"With so many changes and so much that could have gone wrong I really did not want the system swamped with users until we knew it was running smoothly.

"No one was disadvantaged in any way by the soft launch and it was a sensible precaution.

"As it happened I really needn’t of worried because it’s been worked really well from the get go.

"Well done to the IT team at Aspire Media Group and to those of you who spotted it early and helped us to launch it successfully.

"We are keen to provide those of you that want to buy season tickets a bit of freedom so that you can select your preferred seat for the season without being restricted by someone else who has bought a single match ticket.

"To allow this wriggle room we will not be adding League games until Wednesday 6th July. However, that eats into the time that fans can buy an Early Bird ticket for the Carlisle game.

"Therefore I have extended the Early Bird offer for the Carlisle game for an additional seven days.

"Therefore the Early Bird prices are available for the Carlisle game until Friday 8th July giving three full days to take advantage of our cheapest prices for that game.

"Everyone patience has been appreciated and as always I am especially grateful to those of you that do buy a season ticket.

"Up the U’s - Robbie."

Colchester have announced that their Carabao Cup tie against Ipswich Town will be played on Tuesday, August 9. 7.45pm.