Colchester United hosted the opening ramp-up event to Spanish club Athletic Bilbao on 4 August 2008. The first goal scored at the stadium came from Aritz Aduriz for Bilbao after 15 minutes, with Scott Vernon equalising with a penalty kick on 32 minutes. The game ended 2–1 to ten-man Bilbao with David López Moreno scoring a penalty on 83 minutes. The first competitive fixture at the Community Stadium came on 16 August 2008 when Colchester hosted Huddersfield Town in front of a crowd of 5,340. Mark Yeates scored the first competitive goal at the stadium in a 2–2 draw with Oldham Athletic on 30 August 2008 and registered their first win on 25 October 2008, winning emphatically against Carlisle United. They scored five goals from David Perkins, Dean Hammond, Akanni-Sunday Wasiu and two netted by Mark Yeates.