| The U'sual Ramblings #6 13:50 - Sep 3 with 957 views | wessex_exile |
The U’sual Ramblings #6, and today if nothing else we can bid farewell to Awful August, and usher in Splendid September. Leaving aside our ongoing injury crisis, poor tactics, poor team selections, poor individual performances and poor team performances, we can’t also deny that on paper at least that was a tough set of fixtures to open the season with. I’m not condoning what went on, but in some regards, coming out of it with 4 pts and not in the relegation zone is almost a bonus. Looking forward, what with some exceptional signings late in the transfer window, and the chance to turn a corner at home against a Hartlepool United side fairing even worse than the U’s, I’ve never been more hopeful that the U’s will start to progress up through the table.
The world outside U’s World
Boris has weighed in on the energy crisis, during a speech made at the Sizewell nuclear site in Suffolk during the week. The clip, which has spread all over social media, appears to show Boris recommending households purchase a new £20 kettle to potentially save up to £10 per year on their fuel bills. However, to be even-handed here, his comment is being taken out of context, and it was an analogy for developing our nuclear energy capacity — expensive as an outlay, but potentially more than cost-effective in the long run. EDF Energy, majority owner of the project, previously reported that when Hinkley Point C is up and running, it would save the UK £1bn in energy costs, and Boris upped that to £3bn in his speech. A spokesperson for EDF confirmed that revised figure is indeed correct, and could even be £4bn, mainly because of the current astronomical cost of our fuel.
In a related matter, Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom have confirmed their gas pipeline to Germany will not be reopened as planned. They claim to have found a leak in a turbine, and as a result it would remain closed indefinitely. In the tit-for-tat world of Iron Curtain politics, and against the backdrop of an invasion of Ukraine that has ground to a halt, it is probably no coincidence their announcement came a few hours after G7 countries agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil in a bid to stem the flow of funds to Moscow. The gloomy reality remains that unless the situation improves, Europe, and particularly Germany, may have to impose power usage restrictions on households and businesses alike.
My appetite for all things Trumpian remains undimmed, and this week the FBI released a more detailed inventory of the documents stolen by the former president and seized during a raid at his Mar-A-Lago home (and golfing resort). It’s worth remembering that this wasn’t a case of absentmindedness, Trump and his legal team had been slow-walking and obstructing what could have been a simple document transfer for the last year and a half, and lied (in writing) when declaring that a previous delivery was everything they had. However, never mind all the confidential, classified top secret documents they did retrieve, were up to 90 empty folders marked classified, their contents presumed missing. With a well-deserved reputation for monetising anything and everything he can, you have to worry where these documents might be, and what Trump intends to do with them.
U’s World
Well, what can I say about the week we’ve just had — probably nothing as eloquently as Durham in today’s match preview — which I urge you to read if you haven’t done so already.
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/colchesterunited/forum/289243/new-era-daw
The closing of the transfer window saw not one, nor two, but three very exciting loan signings for the U’s late on. First through the door was Blackpool striker Beryly ‘Bez’ Lubala, on a season-long loan deal. Bez came through the Birmingham City academy ranks, making his professional debut for the Blues in 2018. The following year he signed for Crawley, scoring 13 goals in three-quarters of a season before the Covid lockdown arrived. That caught Blackpool’s eye, and they signed him for an undisclosed fee in the summer of 2020. Like Col U legend Lua Lua, Bez is Congolese, and I’m looking forward to seeing him rekindle his League 2 goal-scoring form at the U’s.
No, not that one
Like London buses, no sooner than we sign one striker, another one followed shortly after, with the U’s signing Kwesi Appiah on a season-long loan from fellow League 2 side Crawley Town — a move that presumably means he won’t be eligible to play against his parent club this season. 32-year old Kwesi has a wealth of experience from a football career which began at AFC Ebbsfleet back in 2008. In all that time, he has maintained an impressive strike rate, averaging a goal approximately every three games throughout. With 40 games to go, that would be another 13/14 for the U’s, which will do very nicely thank you very much.
And finally, the cherry on the cake was the signing of midfielder Matty Longstaff from Premier League Newcastle United, on a loan deal through to January for now. Born in Rotherham, Matty joined the Newcastle U21 set-up in 2018, and eventually made his first team debut in August 2019 against Leicester City in the League Cup. In October of the same season, in his Premier League debut, he scored the winner in a 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford. At one point Matty was attracting interest from both AC and Inter Milan, he’s had a loan spell at SPL side Aberdeen, and last season scored six in 16 games whilst on loan at Mansfield. It has been reported we fought off competition from League 1 sides for Matty’s signature, and even my neighbour raised his eyebrows and declared “crikey!” when I mentioned we signed him!
Good luck U’s, new and old alike, as we kickstart our promotion campaign this afternoon!
Stat attack
So of course we all know the folklore tale about the residents of Hartlepool capturing a monkey dressed in a miniature uniform from a ship-wrecked French ship during the Napoleonic Wars. The only survivor of the ship wreck, the monkey was allegedly put on trial there and then on the beach as a French spy, found guilty (because it couldn’t answer questions put to it), and summarily hung on the spot.
Initially used as a derogatory term by anyone not from Hartlepool to describe the locals, the term “monkey-hangers” has since been adopted as a badge of honour by most Hartlepoolians. Hartlepool Uinted’s mascot is H’Angus the Monkey, two of the town’s six rugby union clubs make reference to the folklore, there are even statues of monkeys on the Hartlepool seashore, one collecting coins for a local hospice. Stuart Drummond went one further in 2002 when he became the first directly elected mayor of Hartlepool whilst in the guise of H’Angus — but the killjoys in County Hall wouldn’t let him wear the costume whilst in office.
There are similar ‘monkey-hanging’ tales from elsewhere, and there’s no real firm evidence this actually happened, rather than simply a tale created to entertain. There is, however, somewhat darker alternatives to this story — ships of the line in the Napoleonic era used young children as ‘powder monkeys’ serving the guns, and there is the grim possibility that was who was hung that day. Others have offered the suggestion that it wasn’t a monkey but a negro who was hung, equally grim. I guess if you wanted to be known as either stupid, child-killers or racists, you’d probably prefer Option A.
Match of the Day
Barnet v Colchester United
Saturday 19th August 1995
Endsleigh League Division Three (Tier 4)
Attendance 1,966
The memorabilia random match selector for today’s Match of the Day, perhaps with a sense of the occasion today, has chosen a real doozy from the past — our 1995 early season trip to Underhill to face Barnet. This is one of a number of visits I’ve made to Barnet over the years, two of which have already featured in both Matches of Yesteryear and Letters from Wiltshire. Under Steve Wignall, the U’s had got off to a flyer on the opening day the previous Saturday, defeating promotion favourites Plymouth Argyle 2-1 at Layer Road. They followed this up in midweek with another 2-1 victory over Division Two Bristol City in the League Cup.
The mood was therefore buoyant, and with the day dawning sunny and dry, I travelled over for my birthday weekend football trip to discover nearly 800 more of the faithful had had the same idea. Meeting up with my brother-in-law Steve and his eldest boy James, we grabbed a few pre-match refreshments in the Old Red Lion — sadly long since demolished for flats once the Bees moved to the Hive.
Another awayday pub lost
Although there was a perfectly good (and cheaper) covered terrace available at the south end of the east side of the pitch, the Barnet match officials insisted that all of the U’s support had to squeeze into the south bank of uncovered temporary seating behind the goal. More on this later but suffice to say this was causing considerable angst among the U’s support, both with the stewards and internally. Nobody wanted to sacrifice their seats to allow those who wanted to stand and sing to be at the back, stewards constantly tried to vigorously imposed their no-standing ban, and to be frank, most (including myself) had had a few, it was a very hot day, and none of us particularly wanted to sit there and desiccate all afternoon.
For his first away game of the season, Steve Wignall’s U’s lined up:
1….Carl Emberson
2….Adam Locke (Locke Locke!)
3….Simon Betts
4….Tony McCarthy
5….Gus Caesar
6….Peter Cawley
7….Mark Kinsella
8….Tony Dennis
9….Steve Whitton
10..Tony Adcock (Robbie Reinelt)
11..Michael Cheetham
The big name at Barnet was probably their then manager and former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence. Clemence had taken over joint management of Barnet with fellow goalkeeper Gary Phillips in January 1994, and at the start of the 1994/95 season took sole charge of the club. The other name of note, and one to look out for even if he was at the tail end of his career, was Alan Pardew at the heart of the Bees midfield. After turning down an opportunity to play in Hong Kong for big bucks, his time at Barnet would be his one last hurrah as a professional footballer before moving into management.
As for the game itself, the aforementioned pre-match refreshments somewhat cloud my memory of specific match details, other than it was a positive competitive performance from the U’s against a side who knew how to take full advantage of the legendary Underhill slope. The more vocal were doing what they could to cheer the U’s on, but with sitting vigorously enforced and the open air sucking whatever noise we could generate into the sky, it was proving a difficult afternoon.
The other main reason why I don’t remember too many specific details from the first half was that the angst hadn’t abated, in fact if anything it was getting even more fractious. Numerous supporters, myself included, tried to reason with the stewards — they had a perfectly good unoccupied covered terrace available, why on earth couldn’t those that wanted to stand just use that? After probably 20-25 minutes of back and forth, the steward management finally relented, and after making it crystal clear that no one was getting a refund if they wanted to go and stand on the (cheaper) terrace, opened the gate for the U’s — with about 300 of us accepting the invitation.
This made all the difference, and with Barnet fans on the opposite side of the segregation to share ‘bantz’ with, we were in our element, and deafeningly roared the U’s on for the remainder of the match. It seems strange to suggest it, in a match attended by less that 2,000, but this is probably one of the better atmospheres it has been my pleasure to be part of. The U’s seemed to respond too, and into the second half really were getting control of the game.
A shame then that the deadlock was finally broken by a goal from Doogie Freedman in the 69th minute to give Barnet an undeserved lead. Were we downhearted — well yes to be honest — but did we let it affect our support? Not a chance, if anything we found our Spinal Tap ‘volume 11’, and just two minutes later were screaming like maniacs as the U’s were awarded a penalty. Up stepped Rooster…and missed!
But back we came again, every time Barnet found the slightest thing to cheer about, we just drowned them out, with song after song, chant after chant, just crushing their spirit at birth. And finally, making amends for his spot-kick, Tony Adcock finally found the equaliser for the U’s in the 81st minute. We celebrated like we’d won promotion, not snatched a draw at Underhill, with the entire squad and bench coming over to applaud us at the final whistle.
Barnet 1 (Dougie Freedman 69’) Colchester United 1 (Tony Adcock 81’)
Our good start to the season continued the following Saturday, with a thumping 3-0 victory over Lincoln City (already featured as Matches of Yesteryear #3, to keep the U’s in promotion/ play-off chase. Given the previous blog covered our play-off semi-final second leg at Plymouth Argyle, it’s not exactly a spoiler alert to reveal we made the play-offs at the end of the season.
However, it is worth noting that Barnet finished one place and two points behind the U’s in 8th position. Without that battling equaliser for the U’s at Underhill, our positions would have been reversed and we wouldn’t have made the play-offs.
In the Lincoln programme for following match, Steve Wignall made a point of mentioning how grateful the club were for the support at Underhill.
You’re very welcome Steve!
Up the U’s!
|  |
| |  |
| The U'sual Ramblings #6 on 13:56 - Sep 3 with 943 views | durham_exile |
A good read as always Wessex. Great stuff.
The more I think about our signings the more enthused I am. I really hope that WB is brave today.
Up the U's |  |
| |
| The U'sual Ramblings #6 on 18:36 - Sep 3 with 907 views | wessex_exile |
| The U'sual Ramblings #6 on 13:56 - Sep 3 by durham_exile |
A good read as always Wessex. Great stuff.
The more I think about our signings the more enthused I am. I really hope that WB is brave today.
Up the U's |
Thanks Durham, appreciated!
As an aside for the webmaster(s), I've noticed for some time the formatting codes I use for the message-board blog don't work in the actual blog section - is there a solution to that I can effect, like stripping them out and just using the usual bold, italics etc. in Word, or is it something that can't be fixed? | |
| |
| The U'sual Ramblings #6 on 21:41 - Sep 3 with 886 views | burnsieespana |
More interesting ramblings Wessex.
My old chap always supported the monkey hangers as he was born in Hartlepool and lived in Durham until joining up for war service as a rear gunner in Wellington's doing 2.5 tours.
He held a season ticket for many year's at Colchester but whenever we played the monkey Hanger's I got the seat as he would join the away fans. [Post edited 3 Sep 2022 21:42]
|  | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
