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1954–55 Colchester United F.C. season

Field	Value
club	Colchester United
season	1954–55
chairman	Bill Allen
manager	Jack Butler
(until 14 January)
Alf Miller & Claude Orrin
(January to March)
Benny Fenton
(from March)
stadium	Layer Road
league	Third Division South
league result	24th (re-elected)
cup1	FA Cup
cup1 result	1st round
(eliminated by
Reading)
league topscorer
Ken Plant (13)
season topscorer
Ken Plant (13)
highest attendance	10,809
v Southend United, 8 April 1955
lowest attendance	3,517
v Torquay United, 31 March 1955
average attendance	7,284
largest win	4–1
v Northampton Town, 4 September 1954
largest loss	1–6
v Northampton Town, 18 April 1955
pattern_name1	Home
pattern_la1	_white_stripes
pattern_b1	_whitestripes
pattern_ra1	_white_stripes
pattern_so1	_3whitehoops
leftarm1	0000FF
body1	0000FF
rightarm1	0000FF
shorts1	FFFFFF
socks1	0000FF
alt1	Football kit (white jersey with blue, vertical stripes; white shorts;; and blue socks with white, horizontal hoops).
prevseason	1953–54
nextseason	1955–56

(until 14 January) Alf Miller & Claude Orrin (January to March) Benny Fenton (from March) (eliminated by Reading) Ken Plant (13) Ken Plant (13) v Southend United, 8 April 1955 v Torquay United, 31 March 1955 v Northampton Town, 4 September 1954 v Northampton Town, 18 April 1955 The 1954–55 season was Colchester United's 13th season in their history and their fifth season in the Third Division South, the third tier of English football. Alongside competing in the Third Division South, the club also participated in the FA Cup. Following a replay, Colchester were knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round by Reading. Meanwhile, in the league, Colchester's poor run of form had Jack Butler allowed indefinite leave following a bout of ill health. After resigning in January 1955, Colchester appointed Benny Fenton as his replacement, and despite an upturn in form, a run of defeats at the end of the season meant Colchester needed to apply for re-election for the second successive season. Once more, all clubs applying for re-election were successful, with Colchester receiving 44 votes, behind Third Division North clubs Grimsby Town (49 votes) and Chester City (47 votes), but eleven votes ahead of division rivals Walsall.

Season overview

Eight successive league defeats from October to December saw Colchester bottom of the league for Christmas Day, and the plight of the club had begun to have an effect on the health of manager Jack Butler. After falling ill in November, Butler was handed indefinite leave until by the club until the end of his contract in 1956. Suffering from a mental breakdown, Butler eventually resigned on 14 January 1955, while club secretary Claude Orrin was charged with finding a new manager.

During this transitional period, Orrin and Alf Miller took charge of the first-team, before appointing Benny Fenton as manager after attracting 48 applications for the vacancy. Despite a brief boost in on-field fortunes in March and early April, performances tailed off as Colchester picked up just one point in the final eight games of the campaign. The club finished bottom of the Football League and were again required to seek re-election, in which they were successful.

Players

Transfers

In

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Fee	Ref.
Summer 1954	GK	SCO	Jimmy Kirk	ENG Bury	Free transfer	url=http://coludata.co.uk/item.php?pg=player&it=199	title=Jimmy Kirk	publisher=Coludata.co.uk	access-date=8 March 2016 }}
Summer 1954	FB	ENG	Ron George	ENG Crystal Palace	Free transfer	url=http://coludata.co.uk/item.php?pg=player&it=202	title=Ron George	publisher=Coludata.co.uk	access-date=8 March 2016 }}
June 1954	WH	NIR	Frank McCourt	ENG Manchester City	Nominal	url=http://coludata.co.uk/item.php?pg=player&it=201	title=Frank McCourt	publisher=Coludata.co.uk	access-date=8 March 2016 }}
June 1954	WG	WAL	Cliff Birch	WAL Newport County	£1,000
July 1954	IF	IRL	Paddy Leonard	ENG Bristol Rovers	Free transfer
5 March 1955	WH	ENG	Benny Fenton	ENG Charlton Athletic	£500

Total spending: ~ £1,500

Out

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Fee	Ref.
Summer 1954	GK	ENG	Frank Coombs	ENG Gravesend & Northfleet	Released
Summer 1954	WH	ENG	Doug Keene	ENG Dartford	Released
Summer 1954	WG	ENG	John Church	ENG Crittall Athletic	Released
31 May 1954	WH	ENG	Harry Bearryman	ENG Metropolitan Police	Free transfer
6 November 1954	WG	ENG	Peter Aitchison	ENG Sittingbourne	Free transfer
5 February 1955	FB	ENG	Ron George	ENG Sudbury Town	Free transfer	name=FG}}
19 February 1955	WH	NIR	Frank McCourt	ENG Poole Town	Released	name=FG}}
28 April 1955	GK	SCO	Jimmy Kirk	ENG Torquay United	Free transfer	name=FG}}

Match details

Third Division South

Main article: 1954–55 Football League

Results round by round

League table

Matches

Report Ellaway Grice Plant Cook Plant Grice Plant Plant Gordon Mundy Stobbart Rainford Grice Pacey P. Wright Report P. Wright P. Wright Cook Paton Plant Leonard Dudley P. Wright Pacey Hazlett Short P. Wright Plant Report Stewart Report Hollis Leonard Elder Harrison McCurley P. Wright Hoskins Mulgrew Day Walker

FA Cup

Main article: 1954–55 FA Cup

Uphill Hill Grice McKim

Squad statistics

Appearances and goals

|- !colspan="14"|Players who appeared for Colchester who left during the season |}

Goalscorers

Place	Nationality	Position	Name	Third Division South	FA Cup	Total
1	ENG	CF	Ken Plant	13	0	13
2	ENG	WG	Peter Wright	9	0	9
3	SCO	IF	Johnny McKim	7	1	8
4	ENG	WG	Mike Grice	6	1	7
5	IRL	IF	Paddy Leonard	5	0	5
6	WAL	WG	Cliff Birch	3	1	4
ENG	WH	Bob Dale	4	0	4
8	SCO	WH	Jimmy Elder	2	1	3
9	ENG	WH	Benny Fenton	2	0	2
10	ENG	CF	Kevin McCurley	1	0	1
ENG	CB	Reg Stewart	1	0	1
	Own goals	0	0	0
	TOTALS	53	4	57

Clean sheets

Number of games goalkeepers kept a clean sheet.

Place	Nationality	Player	Third Division South	FA Cup	Total
1	SCO	Jimmy Kirk	7	0	7
2	ENG	George Wright	4	0	4
	TOTALS	11	0	11

Player debuts

Players making their first-team Colchester United debut in a fully competitive match.

Position	Nationality	Player	Date	Opponent	Ground
GK	SCO	Jimmy Kirk	21 August 1954	Swindon Town	Layer Road
WH	NIR	Frank McCourt	21 August 1954	Swindon Town	Layer Road
WG	WAL	Cliff Birch	21 August 1954	Swindon Town	Layer Road
IF	IRL	Paddy Leonard	21 August 1954	Swindon Town	Layer Road
FB	ENG	Ron George	16 October 1954	Brentford	Griffin Park
WH	ENG	Benny Fenton	5 March 1955	Brentford	Layer Road
WH	IRL	Austin Dunne	9 April 1955	Gillingham	Priestfield
WH	ENG	Trevor Harris	18 April 1955	Northampton Town	County Ground
GK	ENG	John Wright	30 April 1955	Southampton	Layer Road

References

General

Books

Websites

Specific

References

(2008). "The Who's Who of Colchester United: The Layer Road Years". Breedon Books.
"Colchester Utd 2–0 Southend United". Coludata.co.uk.
"Colchester Utd 0–2 Torquay United". Coludata.co.uk.
"Average Attendance Figures Per Season". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
"A history of admission to the Football League". Nonleaguematters.co.uk.
Hudson, Matt. (11 July 2012). "The 1950s and 1960s". Colchester United FC.
"Appearances". Coludata.co.uk.
"Jimmy Kirk". Coludata.co.uk.
"Ron George". Coludata.co.uk.
"Frank McCourt". Coludata.co.uk.
"Cliff Birch". Coludata.co.uk.
"Paddy Leonard". Coludata.co.uk.
"Benny Fenton". Coludata.co.uk.
"Frank Coombs". Coludata.co.uk.
"Doug Keene". Coludata.co.uk.
"John Church". Coludata.co.uk.
"Harry Bearryman". Coludata.co.uk.
"Peter Aitchison". Coludata.co.uk.
"Goals". Coludata.co.uk.
"Clean sheets (1st team)". Coludata.co.uk.
"Alltime- List of Debuts". Coludaybyday.co.uk.

Info: Wikipedia Source

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