Vital Statistics
Founded: 1937
Chairman: Robbie Cowling
Last Season: League One - 23rd (Relegated)
Nickname: The U's
Rivals: Southend United, Ipswich Town
Major Honours
None
Scheduled Matches
Portsmouth vs Colchester: Saturday, August 20th (3pm)
Colchester vs Portsmouth: Saturday, March 11th (3pm)
Colchester United: A brief history
Formed in 1937 as a professional club to challenge the amateur Colchester Town FC and the latter soon folded as crowds came to see the new team in action. The U's made a name for themselves and were elected to the Football League in 1950.
Colchester's greatest moment came in 1971 when they defeated Don Revie's Leeds United on the way to the FA Cup quarter-final before losing to Everton. Financial difficulties in the mid-1980's saw the club relegated to non-league for the first time but returned just two years later.
Recent history has seen the Essex club play in the Championship and finish as high as 10th before being relegated to League One where league positions worsened over the years before finally succumbing to the drop to League Two last season.
The Manager: John McGreal
The 44-year-old defender spent the majority of his playing career with Tranmere, Ipswich and Burnley. His first red card actually came against Pompey when he was playing for the Tractor Boys but he won promotion with the Suffolk side.
Having settled in the area, McGreal joined Colchester as an academy coach in 2009, moving on to the under-21's and then the main manager's job at the end of last season following relegation to League Two under Kevin Keen.
The Ground: Weston Homes Community Stadium (Capacity: 10,100 - Away: 2,000)
Having moved from Layer Road in 2008, Colchester's new home is, unfortunately, nothing more than a generic box ground and what's worse is that it's a long distance from the town centre. The outside of the ground does have a bar and the occasional live band, so it's not all bad.
Away fans with large followings get to sit in the North Stand. The jobserve Stand is to the left of that and is available for small followings. This shouldn't apply to Pompey.
The opposite stand is virtually the same. There really isn't anything remarkable about this stadium. If you've been to Shrewsbury's Greenhous Meadow then you should know exactly what to expect.
The final photo below was taken just before kick-off. As you can see, the stadium doesn't get anwhere near full so don't expect a great atmosphere from the home support. It's difficult to recommend Colchester as a great away day for football reasons but at least you'll have a decent view of the game...
