When Saturday comes, and after a two-week furlough despairingly following the U’s, The U’sual Ramblings #14 is back. I’m not going to dwell on the last two performances, one much improved, one much less so, but suffice to say the U’s have failed in my demand to be off the foot of the league and still in the FA Cup. Heyho, no one was ever relegated in November, and our most likely path to Wembley via the Pizza Slice Goblet is still open, so hope springs eternal. Despite my reservations about Qatar being a suitable venue for the World Cup (on human rights and weather grounds) I will be dialling in when I can to watch England, and yesterday also joined a work sweepstake. Typically, given my fortunes following the U’s right now, I drew Morocco ☹
Fortunately there’s an award for worst team in our sweepstake
The world outside U’s World
Since my last blog there’s been so much going on in the world, almost too much to decide what to focus on. However, nothing more important for the future of western democracy and world affairs than the American midterms (with a whole bunch of gubernatorial and secretary of state elections thrown in for good measure). Given US midterms are akin to UK by-elections, when the incumbent government usually takes a battering at the polls, the odds were not looking good for the Democrats.
However, nothing could be further from the truth, and in a series of emphatic results, the Republican party took an absolute battering. Commentators on the right were predicting a ‘red wave’ leading up to polling day, but what transpired was at most nothing more than a red trickle. Of more interest, most of the Republican candidates who faired much worse than predicted were Trump-endorsed Maga Republicans. Vocal election deniers, pro-January 6th insurrections, against women’s rights, Q-Anon conspiracy theory protagonists, anti-vaxxers — those sorts of far-right nut jobs.
”I am the law!”
In the end, even though Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock faces a runoff against dumber than a bag of spanners Republican Herschel Walker (a clear argument for stronger helmets in American football if ever there was one), the Democrats have already gathered the 50 seats they need to maintain control of the Senate. The fact that Warnock will probably win the runoff (he won the election, just not by a sufficient margin) means the Republicans will have lost ground on the Democrats — almost unprecedented in the modern history of midterms.
Against the backdrop of election humiliation for the Republican party in general, and the Trump-endorsed candidates in particular, it came as no surprise to anyone that Trump decided to announce his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election in what has been widely described as a distinctly low-energy flat heavily scripted speech from his Mar-a-Lago government archive repository. As if the writing wasn’t already on the wall for Trump’s ‘style’ of politics, his one-time strongest advocate Rupert Murdoch decided his New York post newspaper (apparently, that’s what it is) would carry the news in the most brutal of ways.
Ouch — you want some cream for that #SleepyDonny?
Unfortunately for Trump, even running for president can’t save him from multiple potential court cases, and hot on the heels of his announcement, Attorney General Merrick B Garland had one of his own to make yesterday. In a short-notice and brief press briefing, for which there were no questions, he announced appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith in connection with alleged criminal activity related to the unlawful interference in the transfer or power following the 2020 presidential election and certification of the Electoral College vote on January 6th, and of course the ongoing investigation into mishandling top secret information and other government records, including alleged attempts to obstruct those investigations. This is very bad news for Trump, so I couldn’t be happier 😊.
U’s World
As far as U’s World is concerned, having finished top of our group in the PJT, the U’s were assured a home match for the second round, and on Tuesday night we learned that it would be against League 1 side Bristol Rovers. The match will kick-off at 7.30pm on Wednesday 23rd November (next week), so for those of you who may be interested, time to decide whether it’s our road to Wembley or Belgium v Canada in the World Cup. I know which one I’ll be watching.
On the subject of watching, now that we’re on the eve of the World Cup international fixture rules apply and iFollow streaming is now available. Great for the exiles and others who for whatever reason cannot (will not?) get to games, but it’ll be interesting to see whether the World Cup impacts our already poor attendance stats. Obviously for the Bristol Rovers game you also have the strong ‘veto’ vote as well, but with the Gas well supported these days, I’d still expect over a thousand for the game. That sounds dreadful but given in recent years home attendances in this competition have been well short of that mark, in that context not that bad.
Well done lads!
© Colchester United
The U’s youth continue to show the senior squad where the back of the net is, this time smashing three in without reply against Maidstone United in the second round of the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday night. A brace from Samson Uwanda and one from Freddie Price saw the U’s safely into the third round — any chance they can play today, Matt?
Much as the trip to Crewe was a barren source of amusement for the most part, it was great to catch up with Durham for the afternoon, even if it was to witness some of the worst officiating it has been my displeasure to witness in recent years — and let’s face it, that’s a pretty low bar to get under already. However, and thanks Durham for the heads-up, it was still amusing that we managed to feature in club photographer Steve Brading’s gallery of images from the match.
”Who ate all the pies?”
© Colchester United
Stat attack
Over the years we’ve coexisted with Doncaster Rovers we’ve played each other 48 times, all in either Division Three of mostly Four — no cup games to date. To begin with we were a bit of a bogey side over Rovers, despite Benny Fenton’s U’s losing our very first match back in October 1958 2-1 at Belle Vue. However, by the 70s things had pretty much evened themselves out into a win at home lose away pattern, with remarkably few games drawn. However, the resurgence of Rovers 2012 onwards has tipped the balance in their favour, with overall 18 wins for the U’s, 22 defeats and just eight games drawn.
Like the U’s, Doncaster Rovers have had their spell in non-league, relegated in 1998, and taking five years before returning via the play-offs in 2003. They went on to achieve back-to-back promotions to League 1 the following year, and in 2008 achieved promotion to the Championship for the first time in their history (in a four tier football league, they had been in the Second Division either side of the war).
Even though relegated from the Championship in 2012, they bounced straight back the following season, only to experience another relegation back to League 1 in 2014. Since then, the topsy-turvy existence of Doncaster Rovers has continued, dropping to League 2 in 2016, promoted immediately back the following season, and eventually relegated back to the basement at the end of last season.
Of course no account of Doncaster Rovers would be complete without mention of former chairman, then majority shareholder and jail bird Ken Richardson. Richardson invested heavily in Doncaster Rovers during his tenure in control at Belle Vue, primarily with one focus in mind, build a new ground and sell Belle Vue for housing. However, Doncaster council had other plans, and refused his planning application for a new ground.
Incensed with the council’s rejection of his planning application, and rapidly losing interest in a football club that was really just a cash cow for him to make a lucrative housing deal and amass more personal wealth, in 1995 Richardson hired three stooges to burn Belle Vue to the ground, opening the way for him to sell the smouldering ruins to a housing developer, and pay off existing debts from the insurance pay-out. Although badly damaged, the ground survived the botched attack, and with no other viable options available Rovers had no choice but to continue to play at the damaged Belle Vue.
On the last day of the 1997/98 league, and facing our very own Colchester United, Rovers supporters carried a coffin along Carr House Road to the ground, symbolic of the death of their club under the control of Richardson. Rovers were already relegated to non-league, and had been for some time, so it came as no surprise that the U’s won the game 1-0, courtesy of a Neil Gregory 57th minute winner. We needed the points for a remote chance for automatic promotion but had to settle for 4th place at the top of the play-off group. Rovers finished with just 20 points and a whopping -83 goal difference.
A few weeks after relegation, Richardson was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the arson attack. The actual arsonist, former SAS soldier Alan Kristiansen, received a one year prison sentence, and his two accomplices nine month sentences suspended for two years. It was revealed during the trial that Richardson had paid Kristiansen £10,000 to carry out the attack. For all his SAS training, Kristiansen was arrested after police discovered his mobile phone at the scene of the fire, along with a message he left on Richardson’s answerphone that evening stating “the job’s been done”. Goes to show you just can’t fix stupid.
Ironically, a gas explosion finished the job that the ham-fisted arsonists couldn’t do, with Doncaster Rovers finally moving into their new Keepmoat Stadium on New Year’s Day 2007, defeating local rivals Huddersfield Town 3-0 in a hot-blooded affair that also witnessed three red cards.
Match of the Day
Colchester United v Tottenham Hotspur
Tuesday 23rd July 2002
Richard Wilkins testimonial
Attendance 6,003
I was originally thinking of doing a special for this one, going back to our last game of the 1995/96 season and that memorable Paul Gibbs’ 45th minute mis-sliced cross-cum-shot that looped over Rovers ‘keeper Gary O’Connor’s head to give the U’s victory and an unlikely place in the play-offs…but I’ve already covered that one in LfW#23. So, instead, I’ve let the Match of the Day random memorabilia match generator make the decision, which has been to choose Richard Wilkins’ Layer Road testimonial against Glenn Hoddle’s Tottenham Hotspur.
I’ll be honest, since being exiled I’ve generally avoided pre-season friendlies. To me they’re meaningless in terms of results, they’re just vehicles for managers to try out different formations, trial potential signings, and get the team fit for the season to come. However, this one was different, this was a testimonial for Mr Colchester United Richard Wilkins, and I wasn’t going to pass up on the chance of showing my support for an excellent servant to the club.
In his two spells at Colchester United since joining us from Haverhill Rovers in 1986, Richard made 325 appearances for the U’s, scoring 43 times from the heart of our midfield. An honest footballer and model professional, in all that time he only received ten yellow cards and not a single red. Richard was sold to Cambridge United for £65,000 in 1990 as the U’s dropped into non-league but made a welcome return (via Hereford) in 1996 (for a reported fee of £17,500). He went on to captain the U’s for our play-off promotion final victory over Torquay two years later. Sadly, his long and distinguished career was brought to a premature end in 2000, retiring on medical advice following a serious neck injury.
Fitting therefore that two years later he earned his testimonial match for Colchester United. Even more fitting, recognising a solid professional who deserved nothing less, Glenn Hoddle was more than happy to allow his star-studded Tottenham Hotspur to be the opponents for the night. With the combination of love and admiration for a true servant to the club, and the attraction of Premier League opponents, tickets were in high demand, with the scheduled 7.30pm kick-off delayed on police advice to allow the 6k+ crowd to squeeze into Layer Road — myself and my brother-in-law included on the Barside terrace.
Steve Whitton’s U’s lined up that evening:
31..Richard McKinney
2….Mark Warren (19. Alan White 62’)
4….Gavin Johnson (13. Stern John 55’)
4….Pat McGibbon (8. David Gregory 62’)
5….Joe Keith (15. Danny Steele 84’)
7….Karl Duguid (16. David Hadrava 87’)
7….Thomas Pinault (17. Chris Keeble 87’)
9….Micky Stockwell (19. Kemi Izzet 55’)
10..Kevin Rapley (20. Dean Morgan 55’)
11..Scott McGleish (21. Adrian Coote 69’)
17..Bobby Bowry (16. Marc Canham 80’)
It’s worth also listing Spurs’ team that night too, if for no other reason than to demonstrate the respect Hoddle showed to Richard Wilkins, giving the Layer Road crowd a chance to see some world-beating internationals perform. His starting line up comprised Neil Sullivan, Mauricio Taricco, Chris Perry, Ronnie Henry, Ben Thatcher, our very own Johnnie Jackson, Milenko AÄimoviÄ, Rohan Ricketts, Darren Anderton, Simon Davies and Gary Doherty. During the second half, he brought on Lars Hirschfield, Øyvind Leonhardsen, Dean Richards, Goran Bunjevcevic, Gus Poyet, Diego Bortolozzo, Matthew Ethertington, Serhiy Rebrov, Darren Barnard and Paul O'Donoghue at various points in the game. Only U’s goalkeeper Richard McKinney and (fittingly) Johnnie Jackson played the full 90 minutes.
After Richard Wilkins was welcomed onto the pitch with an appropriate Guard of Honour, the roars of support booming around Layer Road, the game itself was played at a decent tempo for what was effectively a pre-season friendly — certainly not at 100% intensity, but fair and committed none the less. Spurs had one or two absentees from their line-up, not least Stephen Carr and Jamie Redknapp, but still the gulf in class between the two sides was clear to see. Spurs for the most part were in complete control, passing the ball around with ease, the U’s spending most of the first half an hour largely chasing shadows.
It was no surprise therefore when the visitors took the lead in the 31st minute, particularly given the U’s defence included triallists Pat McGibbon and Mark Warren. A peach of a cross from Darren Anderton out on the right caught the defence flat-footed, allowing Doherty to rise virtually unmarked and bullet a header past helpless McKinney.
In truth, we’d done pretty well to keep them out for over half an hour, and I feared that the floodgates would now open. I know it was only a pre-season match, but it was Richard Wilkins’ night, and no one wanted to see a humiliating score line. What literally no one expected though was the U’s would rally and almost immediately storm back into the match. A Scott McGleish header was palmed over for a corner, Doogie swung the set-piece into the heart of the Spurs defence, and there was Gavin Johnson to power a downward header past Scottish international Neil Sullivan.
Holding out to reach halftime at 1-1, and the landslide I feared for now averted, the U’s could be proud of the showing they’d made so far for Richard Wilkins. Glenn Hoddle was the first to ring the changes in the second half, bringing on nine of his substitutes for the second half kick-off. It didn’t take long to pay off either, with Øyvind Leonhardsen drilling home from the edge of the box on 49 minutes to restore Spurs’ lead. The manner of the goal was harsh on the U’s though, with Rebrov completely fluffing his own chance, only for the ball to roll invitingly right into Leonhardsen’s path.
As the second half wore on, the pattern of the game was repeatedly interrupted by more substitutions, with Whitton making the first three of his ten changes on 55 minutes, and a further brace just seven minutes later. All to no avail though, as Spurs grabbed a deserved third on 69 minutes, with Goran Bunjevcevic punting the ball forward for Darren Barnard to latch on to and volley a spectacular effort across the face of McKinney’s goal and into the far corner of the net.
However, by now fears of a landslide had subsided. The U’s had a much firmer foot in the game and were even causing problems of their own on occasions in the Spurs defence. With more substitutions from both sides in the final twenty minutes disrupting proceedings, even though we kept Spurs out we just couldn’t find another goal of our own. No matter though, losing 3-1 to a star-studded Tottenham Hotspur was no disgrace, and the U’s on and off the pitch did Richard Wilkins proud that night.
Colchester United 1 (Gavin Johnson 37’) Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Gary Doherty 31’; Øyvind Leonhardsen 49’; Lee Barnard 69’)
Following his retirement, Richard Wilkins took up the reins as manager of nearby Bury Town, leading them to two promotions during his 14 year spell as their manager. In 2014 Richard joined U’s former manager Steve Ball as his assistant at Leiston, before eventually taking over the no. 1 role shortly after, taking Leiston to the top half of the Isthmian Premier League in his first season in charge.
With Leiston challenging for promotion the following season, Richard left to join Needham Market as assistant manager, taking over the manager role in 2017. He stayed at Needham Market until 2020 and is currently manager of Stowmarket Town.
Up the U’s!
Blog credits:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-merrick-b-garland-delivers-r
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Vue_(Doncaster)
http://www.donny.co.uk/Doncaster/news/1400
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doncaster_Rovers_F.C.#2007%E2%80%93present
https://www.coludata.co.uk/player/1012/richardwilkins?fsur=Wilkins&fplist=al
https://www.coludata.co.uk/match/1022/20020723-tottenham-hotspur?sort=sdate&
https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/5466637.soccer-colchester-united-1-3-tottenh
[Post edited 19 Nov 2022 21:37]
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