Colchester United

Colchester United
	Colchester United
	Template: Infobox Football Club / Maintenance / No picture
Basic data
Surname	Colchester United Football Club
Seat	Colchester
founding	1937
president	Robbie Cowling
Website	cu-fc.com
First soccer team
Head coach	Steve Ball
Venue	JobServe Community Stadium , ; Colchester
Places	10,105
league	EFL League Two
2019/20	6th place

Colchester United (officially: Colchester United Football Club ) - also known as The U’s - is an English football club from Colchester . After a short stay in the Football League Championship , the club rose again in 2008 to the third-rate Football League One . He currently plays in the fourth-rate EFL League Two .

history

Founding phase and amateur football

The club was founded in 1937 and initially shared its home ground, the course on Layer Road , with the now defunct local rival Colchester Town Football Club , which in turn had been based there since 1910 and the British Army field in 1919 had acquired.

After Colchester United had played in its first ten years in amateur football in the Southern League , the club defeated a team from the First Division in the 1947/48 season as the first amateur club in FA Cup history in a 1-0 win against Huddersfield Town , the top English league at the time. In the following season Colchester United set the club's own record, which is still valid today, in the first round match of the same competition against Reading FC on November 27, 1948 with 19,072 paying spectators.

Colchester United as a professional club

For the 1950/51 season Colchester United was included in the Football League Division Three South , played there until 1958 and then qualified for the single-track Third Division . In the period that followed, the relegations to the Fourth Division in 1961, 1965, 1968, 1976 and 1981 alternated regularly with successes in promotion in 1962, 1966, 1974 and 1977.

As a fourth division team, the club celebrated the greatest triumph in its history in February 1971, when in the fifth round of the FA Cup , Leeds United , coached by Don Revie , defeated 3-2 after two goals from former England international Ray Crawford in front of 16,000 spectators became, which ensured that Colchester was only the second fourth division club in cup history to reach the quarter-finals.

In the championship, however, the club had to accept significant attendance losses, as the successes of the nearby club Ipswich Town and in London especially West Ham United increasingly mobilized supporters in Colchester.

The "Jonathan Crisp Era"

After Colchester United stayed in the top third of the table for four years after relegation in 1981, but never seriously intervened in the promotion campaign, the millionaire and businessman Jonathan Crisp took over the club in May 1985 , which at the time owed 140,000 pounds had accumulated. In 1986 he appointed the well-known Northern Irish actor and comedian Frank Carson to a managerial position and in November 1987 dismissed Mike Walker, who had recently been selected as coach of the month in the fourth division, after narrowly missing out on promotion to the play-offs of the 1986/87 season . The new coach was Roger Brown, a former Fulham player who resigned after an 8-0 loss to Leyton Orient in 1988.

The club finished the current season in third from last place and only one year later had to say goodbye to professional football as the last of the fourth division. Crisp himself turned his back on the club after a total of six years in which he tried six coaches, increased the debt level to one million and sold the stadium to the city.

Return to professional football and recent developments

The club restructured itself fundamentally and under coach Ian Atkins just barely missed the return to professional business in the first year. In the following season, when Roy McDonough took over the team in the role of player- coach , Colchester competed with the incomparably richer and very strong club Wycombe Wanderers under Martin O'Neill for the championship. After a spectacular game between the two teams in High Wycombe , when Colchester goalkeeper Scott Barratt scored the winning goal from over 80 meters, Colchester rose due to the better goal difference against the Wanderers with 92 points. The subsequent final win in the FA Trophy against Witton Albion increased the success to a double .

Colchester now established itself in the fourth division, and after losing in the play-offs for promotion to the third division in 1996, the club managed to return to the English third division, now called the Second Division , in 1998 . Since then, Colchester United has mostly played in the lower half of the table in this league, which was renamed Football League One before the start of the 2004/05 season . Under coach Geraint Williams succeeded in 2006 as runner-up in the table, made it to the Football League Championship and thus for the first time the entry into the second highest English division. In this one could only stay for two years. The current coach of Colchester United is Adrian Boothroyd .

Club colors and coat of arms

Colchester United plays in blue and white striped shirts and white shorts, these colors going back to the club's first president, who was a supporter of Huddersfield Town . The alternative colors are currently yellow and blue. The club's coat of arms shows an eagle in front of a blue and white striped protective shield , which also shows the name of the club in white letters. The eagle represents the city's Roman roots . The club used Colchester's municipal coat of arms before the eagle, but changed it in the 1970s .

Others

Steve Lamacq , a well-known DJ at the British radio station Radio 1, is probably the most famous supporter of the club.
Colchester United currently maintains a great rivalry with league rivals Southend United . Furthermore, due to the common history in the Southern League and recently in the Football Conference, there are tensions with the clubs Ipswich Town and the Wycombe Wanderers.
For the 2007/08 season Colchester United had signed Teddy Sheringham , who, as a 41-year-old striker, also played against the team of his son Charlie, who was born in 1988, Crystal Palace .