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For The U’sual Ramblings #24 the imperious U’s away victory run faces its sternest challenge to date, on the long 315 mile road trip north to promotion chasing Carlisle United…and that’s if the supporters and team take the shorter A1 route, if they opt for the M6 it’s 344 miles, but either way easily our longest journey this season, or indeed any season for that matter when the two CUFCs are in the same league. I think the second furthest destination we’ve ever played a competitive match is none other than Bedlington Terriers, but don’t let that put you off.
My Brunton Park mileage on that epic day, 27th April 2013 (LfW#09)
The world outside U’s World This week saw Nicola Sturgeon announce her resignation as leader of the SNP, bringing to an end the Salmond-Sturgeon era of dragging the party from fringe nationalists to the mainstream dominant party in Scotland. Whilst opinions have hinted at other reasons, Sturgeon herself has stated her decision was very much a ‘tank is empty’ one, ground down and worn out after nearly nine years leading a party that has constantly pushed for but never achieved independence, and is now facing controversy over its finances and position over gender recognition legislation (a position that Sturgeon was warned she was massively out of step with public opinion).
Whoever takes over the leadership, and to the best of my knowledge no one yet has stepped forward as a credible candidate, they face the vexed conundrum of Scottish independence and Brexit. Make no mistake, two-thirds of the Scottish electorate are firm remainers, and hence the SNP has seen support for independence rise from 45 to 49% post-2019. But that’s the paradox, although anti-Brexit looks like the natural position, and even though a large proportion of those in support of the Union also support returning to the EU, their counter-argument is simple — Brexit has been a disaster, don’t risk another disaster on the people of Scotland by leaving another proven union in pursuit of some abstract concept of sovereignty.
On the subject of Brexit, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing yet another rebellion, this time in Northern Ireland, where conservative Brexiters have created political deadlock, deeply suspicious of concessions made to the EU in a bid to remedy the problem of the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. This weekend he’ll be mostly in Belfast for meetings with Stormont leaders, no doubt hoping through threat or favour to head off challenge to what are currently considered the highest-stakes talks of his relatively short premiership.
In lighter news from across the pond, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade announced last week that one of their pico balloons “went missing in action” on February 11th, the same day that President Biden scrambled US fighters to shoot down an unidentified object that was thought could pose a threat to US national security. Apparently when they heard of the incident, members immediately thought that could be one of theirs. It is understood that government officials have reached out to the group, who are reportedly “not angry at all”.
U’s World It’s been a fairly quiet week in U’s World this week. During Tuesday night’s 0-0 bore draw against Walsall, Junior Tchamadeu picked up his tenth yellow card of the season, and will now have to sit out today’s game against Carlisle and next Saturday’s at home to Northampton Town — both difficult games, and I fear we’ll miss his energy.
To make matters worse, it has been confirmed that Cole Skuse will need an operation on his injured knee. Described as “not a big operation”, if there’s any solace to take from the news, he’ll apparently only be out for “weeks not months”. Luke Chambers also picked up a knock on Tuesday night, and will have to go through a fitness assessment if he’s to play today. We have decent cover at the back in the squad, but I hope Luke comes through fit and ready. Sam Hornby had the shoulder operation he needed last week, but will still be out for the remainder of the season. With Ted Collins also out with a fractured tibia, it was good to see loanee Tom Smith named on the bench on Tuesday, despite reports he too had been injured in training.
…and finally, versatile left back Harvey Sayer continues his football development gaining first team experience, this stime going out on a one-month loan to Isthmian North side Stowmarket Town. Harvey, whose U’s debut was in the PJT 2020 game against the West Ham U21s, may well make a start in Stowmarket’s game against Witham Town today — good luck Harvey!
Stat attack Overall, our record against the Cumbrians is pretty good since our paths first crossed at Layer Road on 21st August 1961, with Benny Fenton’s U’s winning 2-0 in front of 4,979. Overall, in all competitions it’s been CUFC v CUFC on 56 separate occasions, with the U’s winning 23, drawing 14 and losing 19 — not a bad return.
Away from home though is a different story, winning just seven out of 26, the most recent three being the fateful John McGreal 3-0 win in 2020 which confirmed our play-off place (though we didn’t know it at the time), Joe Dunne winning 4-2 in 2014, and of course the previously mentioned epic Great Escape Joe Dunne inspired 2-0 victory back in 2013. Other than that, the long trip to Cumbria has been somewhat of a barren source of amusement for the U’s.
Incidentally, our record against all other CUFCs from 110 matches, is won 44, drawn 23, lost 43 — and whilst you think that must only be Cambridge United, not quite. We have also played against Chesham United, just once, in the 1st round of the FA Cup back in November 1968.
The U’s, managed by Dick Graham, crushed the (then) Athenian League side 5-0 at Layer Road, with a brace of goals each for Danny Light (34’, 74’) and Brian Hall (49’, 54’) and one from Terry Price (80’), in front of 5,497 supporters. The Generals were managed then (I think?) by former Luton Town and Republic of Ireland defender Brendan McNally, who is credited with giving Kerry Dixon his first start in senior football.
We lost the 2nd round game, also at Layer Road, 1-0 to Exeter City.
Match of the Day Leyton Orient v Colchester United 5th February 2022 Sky Bet Football League 2 (Tier 4) Attendance 5,641
Match of the Day for this blog, and in recognition of our attempt today to make Colchester United history with consecutive away victories, it’s a special — the most recent away win in my memorabilia archive yet to be covered in a blog. For this we go back almost exactly a year to our trip to Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road.
It being Leyton Orient on a Saturday afternoon, as tradition would have it, this was one to leave the kids at home, and meet up with my mate Jon for a proper awayday experience, calling first at Hamilton Hall for some early refreshment. With the usual mustering point in E10, the Coach and Horses now home fans only, we instead reverted to the Leyton Technical to complete our pre-match warm-up, meeting up with my nephew James, and what seemed to be most of our support in a packed-out pub.
After an epic walk around most of the ground trying to find the ticket booth with our pre-purchased tickets in, we also had the pleasure of bumping into Noah and his cohorts, pouring themselves out of a taxi after their own pre-match warm-up at the Truman’s Social Club. And then into the East Stand to join a virtual sell-out for the Faithful, all of whom were in a noisy and boisterous mood — these are what awaydays are all about.
The U’s, managed at the time by Interim Head Coach Wayne Brown (with Dave Huzzey and Joe Dunne in support) lined up:
After a disastrous start to the New Year, losing four on the bounce, the U’s were struggling on the very edge of the relegation zone. However, with Wayne Brown scoring a thumping 3-0 win at Salford for his debut as Interim Coach, followed up by back-to-back 1-1 home draws, including against promotion hopefuls Swindon Town, we arrived at Brisbane Road with hope that under our new manager the U’s had turned a corner. Mind you, our aspirations weren’t helped when Tom Dallison was injured in the pre-match warm-up (theirs, not ours), to be replaced at the eleventh hour by Tommy Smith.
However, we didn’t have long to wait for our hope of a revival to be realised, with Corie Andrews picking up a cross-field ball from Kenlock and sliding a pass perfectly through to Freddie, who made no mistake calmly side-footing past Lawrence Vigouroux to give the U’s a 4th minute lead and send the travelling support mental. All the sweeter given seconds earlier Sam Hornby had made a fantastic save to deny Aaron Drinan’s point-blank header from which the U’s countered.
From then, the U’s dominated the remainder of the first half, rarely troubled by Orient, but without carving out too many (any) clear cut chances. It was just a solid, professional team performance, and given the woes we’d been experiencing during the season to this point, it was a joy to watch. The support was, as always, magnificent, albeit a surprisingly large number of blue flares seemed to have been spirited into the ground. I know my frisking pre-entry was pretty thorough, so I don’t even want to think how they were smuggled in.
Halftime saw more of the slightly darker side of the U’s support, with tempers flaring somewhat whilst waiting in the terminally slow queue for refreshments, whilst another flare was set off (much to the discomfort of at least one supporter who was having breathing difficulties). Fortunately the behaviour didn’t escalate into anything too serious, because I didn’t want to think what might have been if it became a show-down with the stewards, or worse still police.
Into the second half, and the U’s hold of the game continued, although again we were indebted to Sam Hornby on the hour, as Drinan was given the freedom of our penalty area from a Matt Young cross, only (fortunately) to head firmly straight at Sam in goal. Perhaps realising we were only one mistake away from sacrificing the three points we deserved (and needed) Wayne brought on Miles Welch-Hayes for Tyreik Wright shortly after, giving Junior licence to take up a more attacking wing role.
It nearly paid off too, with a decent passing move starting with Junior ending up poked out wide to Hannant on the right. His almost inch-perfect pass across the six yard box had Freddie desperately stretching to get on the end of it, and if he’d been an inch taller, he would have given the U’s a 2-0 lead. Orient were still in it though, and when Drinan (again) beat our offside trap with five minutes to go, it looked odds-on he’d level the scores. However, once again big Sam to the rescue, and coming out to meet the striker he spread himself and managed to get a hand to Drinan’s goal-bound effort. The Faithful celebrated that almost as much as we had Freddie’s goal.
Corie Andrews, who’d had a brilliant game, almost finished it off with a wonder goal in the last minute, weaving and twisting his way through the penalty area to side-foot past Lawrence Vigouroux, but the goalkeeper did very well to get fingertips to it, and the effort rolled agonisingly just outside the post. However, despite another seven minutes of added time, the U’s held out to record a fantastic away win in our bid for survival.
Leyton Orient 0 Colchester United 1 (Freddie Sears 4’)
The win lifted the U’s up to 20th, and although there were still a few downs to come, eventually Wayne Brown took the U’s up to 15th place by the end of the season. As for me and Jon, we retraced our steps back to the Leyton Technical, but it was absolutely mobbed, so instead returned to Hamilton Hall for a few post-match celebrations, before bidding our farewells and heading home.
There’s a YouTube highlights real available for those who want to relive the moment.
Is that not Owura Edwards at the end there "weaving and twisting his way through the penalty area to side-foot past Lawrence Vigouroux, but the goalkeeper did very well to get fingertips to it, and the effort rolled agonisingly just outside the post."
What a player he was in the 13 appearances he made for Col U!
Just seen that he got sent off this weekend for "clattering the goalkeeper" in Ross County's 1-0 defeat at St Mirren in the SPL!
According to Wiki he has played 22 and scored 2?!?
The U'sual Ramblings #24 on 19:17 - Feb 19 by ghughes11
Is that not Owura Edwards at the end there "weaving and twisting his way through the penalty area to side-foot past Lawrence Vigouroux, but the goalkeeper did very well to get fingertips to it, and the effort rolled agonisingly just outside the post."
What a player he was in the 13 appearances he made for Col U!
Just seen that he got sent off this weekend for "clattering the goalkeeper" in Ross County's 1-0 defeat at St Mirren in the SPL!
According to Wiki he has played 22 and scored 2?!?
You’re right - I had it in my head from the day it was Andrews, but definitely Edwards, and yes, quite some player too.
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