It’s Saturday morning, again, the sun is out, again, and The U’sual Ramblings #11 coincides with another of my frequent trips to the County Ground this afternoon. As a result, I’m up and at it a little earlier today, and depending how time goes, this may be a slightly shorter then usual blog if me and the boy are to get to the match in time. Not that we won’t travel with significant hope, after a very good performance on Tuesday at Gillingham that saw the U’s finish top of their EFL Trophy group, and a guaranteed home leg in the second round thrown in for good measure. I’m not certain when the draw will be made, most sides in the competition have still to play their third group matches, but the second round will start w/c 21st November.
© Photerior Ltd 2022
The world outside U’s World
I have already made my feelings known about Kwasi Kwarteng’s dreadful ‘trickle down’ mini-budget, feelings clearly shared by the financial market, with the Bank of England forced to step in with a £65bn bond-buying programme in a bid to stave off a crisis in government debt markets and a meltdown in the UK pensions sector. And so, barely two weeks after his appointment as chancellor, and although she was 100% behind the economic disaster, Liz Truss gave Kwasi the heave-ho.
One commentator observed, she didn’t just throw him under the bus, she threw him under a bus she was reversing off a cliff. Former cabinet ministers, colleagues and political commentators all predict she has at best a 50/50 chance of still being Prime Minister by Christmas. Replacing Kwarteng with the NHS hatchet man Mike…sorry…Jeremy Hunt won’t have helped those odds. If the country went into a General Election now, the polls predict they would effectively be wiped from the political map of the UK.
In a surreal world of Warhol meets Van Gogh, two young climate activists have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage at the National Gallery. They are accused of emptying two cans of tomato soup over Van Gogh’s masterpiece Sunflowers, valued these days at approximately £72m. One of those arrested, Phoebe Plumber, allegedly said “what is worth more, art or life? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?”. Ironically, Van Gogh’s tragically short life was as a tortured soul suffering from severe depression, and when he committed suicide at the tender age of just 37, he was ostensibly penniless.
In the States, the latest (last?) January 6th Committee hearing didn’t fail to entertain, this one setting out in methodical detail Trump’s scheme to try and steal the 2020 election, some of which was planned even before the election results were in. It comes as no surprise, given the measure of a man that loathsome individual is, but what did surprise (me at least) was the Committee unanimous vote to subpoena Trump to appear before the Committee. Of course he won’t, or at best he’ll turn up and plead the 5th throughout but hats off to them for at least trying. One can only hope that the Department of Justice decides to find a pair and charge him based on the mountain of evidence the Committee has unearthed.
U’s World
Firstly, great news from the JobServe yesterday evening, as the U21 U’s came back from a goal down to beat Birmingham City 2-1 in their first game as participants in the Premier League Cup. The U’s trailed at the break from the constantly dangerous Blues forward Kieran Wakefield, but second half goals from Samson Uwanda and Kai Redgrave, the second with just 5 minutes of normal time to go, gave the U’s a well-deserved victory. As I’d lost track of his whereabouts since Wayne Brown was sacked, I was also pleased to see Dave Huzzey back in his role as Head Coach for the U21 side. Wonder where Joe is?
On the subject of cup draws, we also have the excitement of seeing the FA Cup 1st Round draw on Monday evening, live on BBC2 at 7pm. The U’s will be (unlucky?) ball no. 13, with plenty of local options available, including Cambridge United (9), Charlton Athletic (11), Leyton Orient (26), Northampton Town (32), Peterborough United (34) and of course not forgetting Ipswich Town (25). If it’s to be Southend United, they’ll have to get through a tricky 4th qualifying round game today away at Woking.
Stat attack
So the last couple of games for Matt Bloomfield’s U’s have been very much a re-run of Friends Reunited. Gillingham are out most common opponent in our history, with to date 102 matches between the two sides in all competitions. Swindon are our second most common, with 88 games between us (and that’s not counting games against their reserve side in pre- and immediately post-war matches). However, if you consider just league matches, Swindon are streets ahead as our most frequent opponent, with 82 of those 88 games in either Division 4, Division 3 (South) or Division 3.
As you’d probably imagine, with so many game between the two sides, time has allowed the record to even itself out for the most part, with the U’s winning 35, drawing 21 and losing 32 of those 82 games. Stand-out results are for the most part back in the day, Jimmy Allen recorded a 4-1 victory at Layer Road in 1950. Six years later Benny Fenton’s U’s won 5-0, again at Layer Road, with Dick Graham’s 1971 4-1 League Cup victory the last time the U’s scored four or more against the Robins.
Likewise, most of the drubbings at the hand of Swindon are of yesteryear, with Benny Fenton’s 1963 6-1 defeat the low point. In fact, four of our six matches conceding four or more goals against Swindon were under Benny Fenton, including a 4-0 and 4-1 (both 1957), and a slightly more entertaining 4-3 in 1960. However, without doubt our worst result has to be Kevin Keen’s U’s 4-1 thumping at the JobServe just six years ago.
Often in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, particularly with regard to financial matters, Swindon Town seem to have turned a corner for now. As recently as May this year, Swindon Town were removed from the EFL’s Embargo Reporting Service, with an estimated £2.8m removed from an estimated loan debt of £4.5m — a debt they had been saddled with for many years.
Match of the Day
Colchester United v Lincoln City
Saturday 14th August 1993
Endsleigh Third Division (Tier 4)
Attendance 3,198
Today’s Match of the Day is another from the memorabilia random match generator, and goes right back to August 1993, and in keeping with ball #13, the 13th match in my post-1990 collection. It was the opening day of the 1993/94 season, with the U’s under Roy McDonough looking to push on after their first season back in the league finishing in a credible 10th place. Ironically, the previous season had also opened with a home game against Lincoln City, a game the U’s had won 2-1.
As I often do like to do the first and last games of a season, and with the beginning of each season usually falling reasonably close to my birthday too, it was a no-brainer that we travelled over to Essex with my new one-year old daughter so she could be showered with love and attention from the extended family, whilst me and the brother-in-law sneak out for the game at Layer Road. That did of course also include a couple or three pre-match at the Drury.
Still turning out for the U’s in his player manager role, Big Roy’s U’s lined up that afternoon:
1….John Keeley
2….Simon Betts (14. Jason Cook)
3….Paul Roberts
4….Mark Kinsella
5….Tony English
6….Martin Grainger
7….Steve Ball
8….Gary Bennett
9….Roy McDonough (12. Paul Abrahams)
10..Steve McGavin
11..Nicky Smith
For the Imps, there weren’t too many familiar names as far as the U’s were concerned, unless you count Steve Mardenborough, who would go on to join the U’s two years later. However, it is worth mentioning their manager, Keith Alexander. With his playing career winding down, Alexander had been appointed youth team coach at Lincoln City the previous season. When Lincoln sacked their previous manager Steve Thompson, Alexander was put in caretaker charge for their last game of the season, a 2-0 home victory over Darlington. Alexander was given a permanent contract over the summer, becoming the first permanently appointed black manager in the Football League.
It's also worth noting that for this season there were only 22 sides in the bottom tier, a situation in part brought about by the demise of both Aldershot and Maidstone in 1992 and compounded by the creation of the Premier League in 1992/93, and their intention to whittle membership down from 22 to 20 clubs. The long and short of it, there would be no automatic relegation from the new Division Three for this season, though we were joined by newly promoted dear friends Wycombe Wanderers.
As for the game, if I’m honest there’s very little of detail I can remember of it. I know we stood on the Barside, and I’m pretty certain it was at this match I purchased and wore my new Strover’s shirt — not necessarily something to be proud of to be honest. It was a beautiful day too, perfect for football, and with the Layer Road pitch looking like a snooker table, the U’s continued Big Roy’s distinctive brand of free-flowing attacking football.
That being said, after promotion from the Conference in 1988, Lincoln City had established themselves as a decent side in the 4th tier and were widely tipped to be one of the favourites for promotion this season. And it was clear to see why, as the U’s and the Imps went toe to toe in the first half, for the most part cancelling each other out, with half-time arriving and the game still at 0-0.
Into the second half, and with the U’s attacking the Layer Road end, and roared on by the Barside, we finally got the breakthrough ten minutes into the half. Mark Kinsella had already established a reputation as a consummate footballer amongst the Layer Road faithful, even at the tender age of just 21 (his birthday two days before this match). On 55 minutes he latched on to a pass from (?) and from the edge of the 18-yard box drilled home a peach of a left foot shot. Layer Road erupted, finally the new season was up and running.
As expected, Lincoln clearly weren’t going to take this lying down, and turned the screw of the U’s for the next 15-20 minutes, but to no avail as the backline held strong. As the second half wore on and determined to get the season off with a win, Big Roy first subbed himself for Paul Abrahams, followed by Jason Cook for Simon Betts. It worked too, and with the clock running down and Lincoln City bereft of ideas how to unlock our defence, Kinsella could have snatched a late second, but it was still relief all round as referee D Orr finally blew his whistle on an opening day victory for the U’s.
Colchester United 1 (Mark Kinsella 55’) Lincoln City 0
Although we were a bit up and down in the opening months of the season, following thumping victories 5-2 at Adams Park and 4-1 at home to Bury, the U’s were sat in the play-off zone. However, October and November were pretty dreadful months, and although McDonough’s U’s rallied somewhat, the damage had been done and we finished in a disappointing 17th place, one place and two points ahead of an equally disappointing Lincoln City. On the last day of the season, Roy McDonough was handed a silver salver by Chairman Gordon Parker, in recognition of his 500th career appearance. Three days later, Parker sacked him.
Keith Alexander suffered a similar fate, being sacked at the end of the season, but did in fact return to the Lincoln City hot seat in 2002 for another four years as their manager. Tragically, Alexander died of a reported brain aneurysm in 2010, whilst on his way back from a match for his then club Macclesfield Town at Notts County. The football world was stunned, both the England national team and the U21s wore black armbands on the day as a mark of respect, and the following weekend clubs up and down the country wore black armbands and /or held a minutes silence or applause in honour of Keith Alexander.
Keith Alexander, 14/11/1956 — 3/3/2010
Despite that 5-2 drubbing, Wycombe Wanderers under Whinger O’Neill would gain back-to-back promotions, this time via the play-offs, alongside champions Shrewsbury, Chester City and Crew Alexandra.
Kidderminster Harriers would finish the season as Conference champions and should have been promoted as a result. However, they missed out because their ground didn’t meet league standards, standards in part introduced to prevent another ‘Maidstone’ situation.
Up the U’s!
Blog credits:
https://www.cu-fc.com/news/2022/october/gillingham-gallery/
https://www.theweek.co.uk/daily-briefing#1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992%E2%80%9393_Colchester_United_F.C._season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993%E2%80%9394_Football_League
https://www.coludata.co.uk/match/1022/2584?sort=sdate&order=asc&fsea=all
[Post edited 15 Oct 2022 12:47]
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