Captain Adam Barrett says Gillingham fans will have a massive part to play this season.

Gills launch their League 1 campaign at home to Colchester on Saturday and Barrett wants the crowd on their side from the start.

He said: “It’s nice to be at home first game of the season.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a great atmosphere and we want to get off to a good start.

“It’s going to be a tough game. Colchester have been in the division a while now and they’ve fluttered up into the Championship.

“We’ll get the home backing behind us. Hopefully, we can get off to a cracking start and it will give us a good confidence boost going into the tough Wolves away game (next Saturday).

“The fans were tremendous last year, especially the away support and the numbers they turned up in.

“We want to make this place a hard place for teams to come. The supporters played their part last year. They enjoyed it as it was a successful season and hopefully we can do that again."