Colchester United beat Port Vale at the weekend to go top of League Division 1 – We are top of the league! We? It didn’t take long for the closet Col U fans to start worming their way out of the woodwork now that things are looking up at Layer Road did it? I can hardly claim to be a fan after spending only a handful of Friday night games on the Barside during the early nineties, but I did feel a small surge of pride on opening the back pages of the Mirror on Sunday.
The way things are looking at the moment, the Championship teams of former European Glory will be travelling down the A12 at the start of next season. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Even better than that, the U’s might even be jumping teams like Leicester and Millwall who are fast approaching relegation. I pass Millwall’s Den on the train through South Bermondsey sometimes, and it does look like a nice little staduim. Which is a word that couldn’t really be used to describe Layer Road, which resembles a couple of sheds in the middle of an Army married quarters estate.
Picture it now, the start of a new season for the Leicester away fans, gazing over billboards for Stanway Double Glazing onto that soaking pitch on a wet Wednesday evening. How distant the days of Red Star Belgrade or Martin O’Niel.
But hey, onwards and upwards for the White and Blues, it’s about time they had some success and good luck them.