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The U’sual Ramblings #17, and my opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and equally a healthy, wealthy and Happy New Year. It’s been over a fortnight since our narrow defeat at Sutton United, during which time we’ve learned that Alan Judge is now out for at least a year after suffering a triple ligament rupture in his left knee, with the anterior, posterior and medial ligaments all damaged. At his age, whether we see Judgey in a U’s shirt again remains to be seen, but I would like to think so and wish him a speedy recovery. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Ossama Ashley picked up his second yellow early in the second half at Gander Green Lane and won’t be available for tomorrow’s trip to the Priestfield.
Get well soon Alan
To get you into the festive spirit, here’s something very dark from t’internet.
The world outside U’s World First and foremost, bravo to Argentina and France for providing probably one of the better if not best World Cup finals I can remember (I don’t really remember ’66, I was only four). In particular it was a masterclass in professional football from two men at opposing ends of their careers — Lionel Messi who surely has now played in his last World Cup, and Mbappe who I’m sure we’ll see for several World Cups to come. Imagine though, scoring a hat-trick in the final and still not getting a winners medal! My sweepstake superstars Morocco eventually lost the 3rd place play-off, and me a token pay-off in the sweepstake, but still took a momentous step forward for African football.
Sticking with the festive spirit, I was amused to read of an armoured vehicle full of inebriated Santas out on their traditional pub crawl getting jammed in on a narrow country lane near Angarrack in Cornwall. The armoured vehicle, a vintage WWII model, eventually had to be freed by police, after blocking the lane for over two hours. I’m kind of glad that when all was said and done, no charges were made.
Across the UK strike action continues to spread as the cost of living crisis continues to worsen. The rail dispute seems never-ending, and in more recent times has been joined by Royal Mail staff, national highways workers, nurses and Border Force staff. It has been confirmed that armed forces personnel have been drafted in to minimise the disruption, receiving training in essential skills such as ambulance driving and passport-checking. The armed forces personnel will receive a £20 per day bonus on top of their regular salary for each day spent on training or in service. Rishi Sunak opted against a traditional message to the country, and instead took the opportunity to thank public servants in his Christmas address.
The war in Ukraine continues, with the beleaguered men, women and children of Ukraine facing their first Christmas under the yoke of Putin tyranny and oppression. President Zelensky made his first trip outside Ukraine since the conflict began, to make a historic address expressing the gratitude of the Ukrainian people for US support at the US Capitol last week. Needless to say, the Kremlin was furious, as too (sadly) were a handful of pro-Putin Republican representatives who refused to stand or applaud Zelensky who want mothing more than to cut off all financial and military support to Ukraine.
Alleged call girl and paedophile show their true colours
U’s World So apart from the sad injury news regarding Alan Judge, it’s been a fairly quiet few weeks in U’s World. With the visit of Salford last weekend postponed due to a frozen pitch (thankfully in plenty of time to prevent any Salford fans travelling unnecessarily), the fixture has now been rearranged for Tuesday 24th January. All tickets purchased for the original fixture will be valid for the new date as too will IFollow video passes, although the rearranged fixture would have qualified anyway, being a midweek match. In addition to tomorrow’s match, the home games against AFC Wimbledon on 29th December and Swindon on New Years Day are also available for streaming.
Sadly, the U’s U18 bowed out of the FA Youth Cup in the 3rd round, comprehensively beaten 6-0 by a far superior Cambridge United U18 side. Tickets are now on sale for the U’s 4th round match against Saffron Walden in the BBC Essex Senior Cup, priced £6 for adults, £3 for concessions and £2 for under 16s. The match is scheduled for Wednesday 4th January at the JobServe.
We’ve all, at various times, passed comment on the declining quality in match officials in recent years, and particularly this season. It therefore comes as no surprise, and sadly precious little comfort, to learn that Matt Bloomfield has already received his second written apology from a referee — and he’s only been in charge a few months. Following on from referee Tom Reeves apologising for missing Harry Pell’s foul immediately prior to awarding the winning penalty to AFC Wimbledon, Matt’s now received a second from Ross Joyce, who missed Akins’ foul on Tommy Smith seconds before Mansfield snatched their stoppage time winner.
Sadly, although Samson’s super-strike against Doncaster won the U’s Goal of the Month award, it wasn’t quite good enough to win the Sky Bet League Two Goal of the Month award. Ironically, that was won by Harrison Biggins of the aforementioned Doncaster, in a match at Grimsby. No sour grapes here, Harrison’s half-volley was world class!
Stat attack As mentioned in TUR#16, Boxing Day is our most common day for playing a game of football, a stat that is probably true for most football clubs through the UK. We’ve played on Boxing Day no less than 63 times in the 83 seasons that we’ve been in existence (82 if you don’t count the curtailed 1939/40 season when Adolf had other plans). As befits the tradition of Boxing Day fixtures generally being localish derbies, the top five opponents comprise Gillingham (7), Southend (5), Peterborough United (4, Northampton (4) and slightly further afield Brighton and Hove Albion (3). Three of our seven matches against Gillingham were in our first five seasons as a football club, including our first and second seasons.
Of course, it should be remembered (or perhaps forgotten forever) that one of those Brighton games, the infamous 1997 4-4, was also played at the Priestfield whilst the Seagulls were in exile. The U’s were coasting 3-0 at halftime, with two from Isaiah Rankin and one from Tony Adcock, only to fall apart as Paul Emblen grabbed a 20 minute second half hat-trick to level the scores. The U’s looked to snatch victory back from the jaws of an ignominious debacle with a fourth from Scott Stamps, only for Jeff Minton to reclaim the fightback point with an 86th minute penalty. This would be the last goals that Rankin and Stamps scored for the U’s, and Rankin’s last appearance too.
Although recent seasons have seen a fairly even mix of wins and defeats, and surprisingly few draws, overall the record is fairly underwhelming, with 19 Boxing Day victories, 17 draws and 27 defeats. Against tomorrow’s opponents Gillingham it’s even worse, with just a solitary 1-0 victory at Layer Road back in 1951 in only our second season in the 3rd Division (South). We’ve drawn two and lost the remaining four, with our best performance away a Ted Fenton inspired 2-2 in 1947, and in front of a bumper Boxing Day attendance of 12,500, losing in the remaining three attempts.
Not quite our record Boxing Day attendance, that was 19,563 at Carrow Road in 1952 (we lost 3-0), followed by 13,176 at Layer Road against Ipswich in 1955 (we drew that one 3-3). Interestingly, back when this was a thing, we played Ipswich at Portman Road the very next day for the return fixture, losing 3-1 in front of 22,644.
Match of the Day Colchester United v Stevenage Thursday 26th December 2013 Sky Bet Football League One (Tier 3) Attendance 3,919
Courtesy of Graeson’s ColuData website
Match of the Day for this blog, and it’s a special as we go back to one of our more recent Boxing Day matches, against near neighbours Stevenage in 2013. Since the arrival of my daughter Lauren in 1992, and with ever-increasing family commitments, I rarely get to Boxing Day fixtures, and certainly wasn’t at this one, so the programme cover is courtesy of Graeson’s ColuData website, with my thanks.
2013/14 was Joe Dunne’s first full season in charge of the U’s, after steering the U’s to narrowly avoid relegation the previous season. Showing faith in their performances as loanees in 2012/13, Joe Dunne had re-signed Craig Eastmond, Sanchez Watt and big Sam Walker in the summer, with Matt Heath and Jackson Ramm let go. The summer also saw the departure of stalwart John White to Southend United, after rejecting a reduced terms contract.
Ironically, 2013/14 kicked off with a trip (including me and Jon) to Gillingham for a U’s 1-0 win thanks to a late Andy Bond winner. Joe followed that up with another 1-0 win at home to Port Vale, and after successive 1-1 draws away at Sheffield United and home to Carlisle, were still in the play-off zone as we approached the end of August. However, a run through from there to mid-December with just two victories from 16 matches saw the U’s slide all the way down to 18th, and again nervously looking over our shoulders at the relegation zone. However, a decent 2-0 victory at Boundary Park just before Christmas had rekindled hope for the new year that even if we were unlikely to challenge for promotion, at least we’d be safe from relegation, so a lot was hanging on the visit of relegation-doomed Stevenage.
Joe Dunne’s Boxing Day U’s lined up that afternoon:
The U’s kicked off towards the South stand on a bright and chilly day and didn’t have long to wait to go in front either, thanks in the most part to Stevenage ‘keeper Chris Day. A lofted high cross from Brian Wilson was fumbled and dropped by Day, to give Blair Turgott the easiest of tap-ins on his home debut. Four minutes later, showing he was still full of the Christmas spirit, Chris Day gifted the U’s a second. This time it was a high cross from Luke Garbutt which had Day flapping. His powder-puff punch went more up than out, falling perfectly for Jabo Ibehre to score with a stunning overhead kick into the back of the net.
Needless to say, the South stand by now were giving Chris Day a torrid time, and on 26 minutes that ramped up another notch as the U’s grabbed a third. Good play by Dominic Vose down the left wing saw him weave into the penalty area before cutting back to Blair Turgott on the edge of the box. Goal scorer Turgott turned provider, drilling an inch-perfect pass through to Craig Eastmond in the 6-yard box, who made no mistake with a simple tap-in past the helpless Day.
3-0, and the U’s weren’t finished there either. A free-kick 25 yards out was fired in from Luke Garbutt, which Day did very well to keep out of the top corner of his net, somewhat making amends for his two previous howlers. However, late in the first half, with barely five minutes to go, Stevenage reminded the U’s that they needed to keep their focus. The U’s defence were guilty of ball-watching as Francoise Zoko rose unchallenged in the box, but his header fortunately drifted wide of Sam’s goal.
Into the second half, Stevenage again belied their lowly position (and current score line), continuing to take the game to Colchester United. A decent floated cross into the box from Filipe Morais was headed right into the path of Luke Freeman, who really should have scored. However, Sam Walker was equal to the challenge, diving to his right to palm round the post. Morais’ resultant corner again had the U’s defence in a complete muddle, with Walker getting his fingertips to a downward header to tip the ball onto the angle of post and bar. The rebound fell to Lucas Akins (yes, that Lucas Akins) whose ‘Ibehre’ overhead fortunately flew just wide of the post with Walker beaten.
On 72 minutes Joe Dunne substituted Turgott for Sanchez Watt, presumably in a bid to get a better grip on the game and stifle any further chances for Stevenage to snatch a goal back. Instead, if anything, it rekindled the earlier dominance of the U’s, and five minutes later the U’s had another. Breaking in numbers down the right, Dominic Vose slid a pass through to newly arrived Sanchez Watt, who squared perfectly for Craig Eastmond to grab his second of the afternoon to put the U’s 4-0 up, and that was that.
The result lifted the U’s up into mid-table, a decent results into mid to late January even rekindle hopes that the play-offs might still be achievable. However, a series of postponements through January and February (fixture clashes with cup games and waterlogged pitches) to all the impetus out of the U’s momentum, and we would finish in 16th place. As expected, Stevenage finished bottom of the league and were relegated alongside Tranmere, Carlisle and Shrewsbury.
This was Blair Turgott’s first and only goal for the U’s, and he would go on to make two more appearances, in the home defeat to Crewe Alexandra three days later, and as an unused sub in the New Years Day 0-0 at MK Dons, before returning to West Ham at the end of his extended loan.
Up the U’s!
There are match highlights from Stevenage FC still available on YouTube.
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