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The U’sual Ramblings #5 arrives on the day of a tough looking trip to Prenton Park. Normally, I wouldn’t if I’m honest expect too much from today, but I think the U’s can take considerable encouragement from their battling performance against Premier League Brentford. No, we didn’t win, and yes there were still one or two uncertain performances in the squad, but overall it was a much improved U’s compared to the lacklustre Orient game (yeah, thanks for the birthday present U’s — hope you kept the receipt). Even better to see the return of Tom Dallison, who will be a huge asset for the rest of the season, if we can keep him out of the treatment room.
The world outside U’s World The energy crisis deepens, as the war in Ukraine continues. During the week the energy regulator hiked the cap on household utility bills by a whopping 80%. This prompted chancellor Nadhim Zahawi to warn that even middle income/ class households, never mind the low paid, might need state financial support to meet their escalating fuel bills — hopefully not at the expense of those who need it most, eh Nadhim? Zahawi also warned we were in a “national economic emergency…could go on for 18 months, two years”. Buckle in folks, it’ll get worse before it gets better.
As the Tory party leadership election draws towards a close, reports suggest Liz Truss already has plans to cull the so-called “big beasts” from the cabinet. Dominic Rabb, Steve Barclay, Rishi Sunak, Michael Gove and Grant Shapps all appear to be in jeopardy, but the biggest casualty will undoubtedly by Priti Patel, who’s decision to remain neutral and not back either candidate looks like it might spectacularly backfire. Whilst I have little confidence in the abilities of any who might replace them, good riddance I say. Truss admirably demonstrated her suitability to lead the post-Brexit Tories this week by declaring “the jury is still out” when asked if she considered French president Emmanuel Macron “friend or foe?”. Macron showed true statesmanship by responding “I wouldn’t hesitate for a second. France is a friend of the British people”.
Across the pond, after being ordered to publish the affidavit that lead to FBI agents raiding Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home to recover boxes and boxes of unreturned top secret and classified documents, the heavily redacted affidavit was released yesterday. All of the 32 pages comprising the document were redacted to some degree, with a number of pages completely redacted. Although it is unusual for judges to order the release of an affidavit, a sign yet again that Trump is being afforded considerable leniency in what should be an open and shut case, redaction to protect the identity of civilian witnesses and law enforcement personnel, details of the ongoing investigation etc. is normal.
Surviving redaction, the first page did include “The government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorised spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records”. However, all in all, the affidavit does not really provide any new information related to this case, but it does at least suggest that someone, and probably multiple people, close to Trump dobbed him in — to borrow from his 2016 campaign rally — Lock Him Up!
U’s World One in, one out at Colchester United this week. Young goalkeeper Ted Collins goes out on a month-long loan to Isthmian Premier Division side Potters Bar. Probably not a surprise, given Ted is now third in line for the green jersey behind Sam Hornby and Kieran O’Hara, so I hope he has a productive positive spell at Potters Bar, and returns a more experienced ‘keeper in the process.
Coming in is 20-year old Dan Chesters on a season-long loan deal from West Ham United. Considered a talent for the future, Dan joined the West Ham academy at the tender age of under-8 level and has been there ever since — he was playing for their U23 development squad at just 15. Described as a “livewire attacking midfielder”, Dan made his professional debut for the ‘ammers in October last year, coming on as a late substitute in their 3-0 Europa League victory over Genk, and has since made his Premier League debut in March at Anfield. Dan is expected to be in todays squad, so good luck Dan!
Good luck Dan!
Of course, my concern is what this might mean with regard to Noah Chilvers. The two seem to fulfil similar roles and have similar playing styles — does this mean there’s an offer tabled for Noah and he’s off this transfer window? Obviously, I hope not, but Noah is one of our more saleable commodities, and if the price is right, we simply can’t afford to say no I fear. Fingers-crossed I’m making 2 and 2 equal 5.
Stat attack The U’s have played today’s opponents Tranmere Rovers 63 times since Benny Fenton’s U’s drew 3-3 at Prenton Park back in September 1958, 62 league games and once in the 3rd round of the League Cup under Bobby Roberts in November 1981, also at Prenton Park, which we lost 1-0. The Super Whites definitely have the edge in our league encounters, winning 23 and drawing 21 of our 62 games, with the U’s victorious in just 18.
Without doubt our most sensational victory was also at Prenton Park, when the U’s under Bobby Roberts thrashed Tranmere 5-1, with a brace each for Bobby Gough and Trevor Lee and one from Mick Packer. What amazed me most from that match was the reported attendance of just 1,016! So much so, I had to go check, because I’ve always considered Tranmere one of the better supported lower league sides, but that figure is indeed correct.
In fact, throughout the 70s and 80s attendances at Prenton Park were frequently at the sub-3,000 level, with that figure of 1,016 the lowest home or away against the U’s. This was bleak period for the Super Whites, coinciding with their relegation to the Fourth Division in 1975, and which persisted through most of the 80s against a backdrop of spiralling debt off the field.
Financially, the club clung on by their fingernails through a variety of means, including a raft of friendly fixtures to increase revenue, donations from supporters, and even a £200k loan from Wirral Council, but in 1987 the inevitable happened, and the club went into administration. The night is never darkest than just before the dawn, and with local businessman Peter Johnson taking over the bankrupt club, Tranmere roared back into life. Promoted to the Third Division just two years later, and then the Second Division in 1992, by 1993 the Super Whites were one of the top sides in the division and pushing for promotion to the First Division.
They never quite achieved that milestone but remained a dominant force in the Second Division throughout most of the 90s. Eventually, that couldn’t be sustained, and in 2001 they were relegated back to the Third Division, just one year after being the losing finalist in the 2000 League Cup. Since then, a bit like the U’s, Tranmere spent a while bouncing around in the third tier, but back to back relegations in 2014 and 2015 saw them drop into non-league for the first time in their history.
It would take them three seasons to finally escape the clutches of that vipers nest, and although promoted to League One in 2019 via the play-offs, the Covid curtailment of the following season saw them immediately relegated back to League Two on the points per game rule. Club Chairman Mark Palios was incensed by the decision, considering it unfair and even threatening legal action. He also announced the club would have to make up to 20 members of staff redundant as a result. Probably showboating I suspect, either to try and garner support for his attempt to reverse the decision, or perhaps more cynically to cover his back as he already planned to make those redundancies anyway and found a handy scapegoat in the EFL decision.
Match of the Day Plymouth Argyle v Colchester United Wednesday 15th May 1996 Endsleigh League Division Three (Tier 4) Attendance 14,525
We return to the memorabilia random match selector for today’s Match of the Day, and none other than our 1996 Play-Off semi-final second leg fixture against Plymouth Argyle at Home Park. It had been a cracking season for the U’s, always bouncing around in or just outside the play-offs, but it had taken back to back victories against Mansfield (away) and Doncaster (home) to squeeze us over the line, finishing 7th and last of the play-off qualifiers alongside Plymouth Argyle, Darlington and Hereford United.
Probably worth pausing to consider that group — Argyle doing reasonably well in League One these days, but Darlington were wound up in the High Court in 2012, and Hereford United likewise in 2014. Sometimes you have to pause and reflect, for all the angst of the last few years being a Colchester United supporters, things could be so much worse.
Anyway, back to the game, and with the play-off draws weighted in favour of those finishing 4th and 5th, the U’s played the feisty first leg against Plymouth Argyle at Layer Road the previous Sunday. I couldn’t be there for that one, but 6,511 did jam themselves into Layer Road (at that with our open end closed to supporters), including a sizable travelling support from Devon. It was a closely contested even affair, with the U’s taking a narrow advantage through a 44th minute Mark Kinsella goal. More importantly, with away goals counting double in the play-offs back then (after extra-time), we’d kept a clean sheet too.
And so to the Wednesday evening second leg at Home Park, and with work the next day to worry about, one I decided to drive down to, parking up in a side street on the opposite side of Outland Road to the ground. I joined about 4-500 other U’s fans on the crumbling old open Barn Park End, with about 14,000 Argyle fans surrounding us, most of whom didn’t seem to like us very much. Trips to Home Park these days are a much more gentile experience, compared to back then when Argyle had a well-deserved reputation as a place to expect trouble.
Steve Wignall named an unchanged side from the first leg, as follows:
Argyle for the most part were a team of decent journeymen lower league footballers, with perhaps only Micky Evans and Chris Leadbitter standing out as noteworthy from their line-up. However, making an unwelcome appearance straight from the previous blog, when playing for Hartlepool in my first ever U’s match, Neil Warnock was manager of Plymouth Argyle on that day. Whilst I cannot recall the precise words used, Colin had incensed U’s supporters leading into the play-offs, declaring something along the lines of Colchester United shouldn’t even be in the same league as massive Plymouth Argyle. Oh how we wanted to shove those words down his throat!
Sadly, despite what we wanted to do, things didn’t start well for the U’s, and after just three minutes Argyle had brought the aggregate score level. A long punt from the Argyle half dropped kindly for Micky Evans, with the U’s defence caught flat-footed. Although it was definitely route one football, I can’t deny Evans’ sublime driven shot looping over the head of Carl Emberson was superbly taken, to give Plymouth Argyle a 1-0 lead on the night.
It was, nevertheless, still a very even encounter for the most part, the Pilgrims roared on by a very hostile crowd, and us on the open terrace doing what we could to get behind the U’s, though the night sky just seemed to suck away most of the noise we were making. However, as half-time approached Plymouth grabbed a vital second goal to go into a 2-1 aggregate lead. A freekick was awarded outside the U’s penalty area on the left hand side, and after trying to get his defensive wall in the right place, Chris Leadbitter’s free kick looped over the wall and into Emberson’s nearside top corner. Yes, it was an extremely well taken free kick, but to this day I firmly believe Embo should have kept that one out.
Half time, and with the jeers echoing all around us, time to sample a Devon pasty from the shack at the back of the stand. I have to say, the pasty was as good as the toilets weren’t — that is unless your preference is for a wall in a brick box?
For the first 15 minutes or so, the match settled back into an even contest between two good sides, very much with a bit of added spice given what was at stake. One crunching tackle on an Argyle player so enraged Colin he was sent from the dugout for verbally abusing a match official. I didn’t see this at the time from the open terrace, but Warnock just hoped over the wall and in with the Plymouth Argyle supporters.
Six minutes later, our lifeline arrived, and again we had maestro Mark Kinsella to thank. In the 66th minute a long punt from Emberson deep into the Argyle half was only weakly headed out by their defence. It fell kindly for Kinsella, who took a couple of steps and then simply thrashed in an absolute piledriver, right into the top corner of Steve Cherry’s net. The away terrace went ballistic, and for once Home Park was silenced, as the U’s deservedly brought the play-off level at 2-2 on aggregate. Yes, there would have to be extra-time, but right now we had one controlling foot in the play-off final at Wembley.
Not surprisingly, Plymouth Argyle proceeded to throw the kitchen sink at us for the remaining 24 minutes or so, and for most of that time it looked like we might hold out. Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite, and with just five minutes to go, a long thrown down the Argyle right was flicked on to Martin Barlow. Skinning Tony Dennis for pace, Barlow got to the by-line and crossed right onto the head of unmarked fullback Paul Williams. Emberson could do nothing about this one, and from virtually point blank range Williams buried his header in the back of the U’s net, and Home Park erupted in celebration.
Try as we might, there was no coming back from that for the U’s, and Plymouth won the match 3-1, progressing to the Wembley final 3-2 on aggregate.
Plymouth Argyle 3 (Micky Evans 3’; Chris Leadbitter 41’; Paul Williams 85’) Colchester United 1 (Mark Kinsella 66’)
As the final whistle blew, Plymouth Argyle supporters poured onto the pitch, with U’s players literally running for their lives to get out of the way. I personally saw Emberson verbally abused, and a couple of mindless thugs even kicked out at him. Then the mob, who really should have been focusing on their celebrations, turned their attention towards us on the away terrace. Although a line of police and stewards kept them at bay, coins, golf balls, literally anything they could lay their hands on, starting raining down on the U’s faithful.
I didn’t see anyone badly injured from this, and don’t recall any post-match reports saying there had been injuries, but it was more than enough of a reason to get the hell out of Dodge. A lot of our travelling support had come down by coach, but the rest of us had to slip away as best possible without being found out and singled out by the Argyle mob.
Fortunately, with a lot of them still on the pitch, I managed to get to my car without incident, but whilst waiting to get back on to Outland Road, after the police stopped traffic to allow the coaches to leave, a sizeable mob had gathered at the junction, and were again pelting the coaches with projectiles as they departed.
Plymouth Argyle defeated Darlington 1-0 in the final to gain promotion but were relegated back to the 4th tier just three seasons later. The U’s, on the other hand, had their own play-off final at Wembley just one year later, and in our case managing to stay at that level or higher for the next 18 years.
Neil Warnock is currently unemployed.
There’s an extended highlights YouTube video of the match if you can bring yourself to watch it!
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