From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1955–56 Colchester United F.C. season

Field	Value
club	Colchester United
season	1955–56
chairman	Bill Allen
manager	Benny Fenton
stadium	Layer Road
league	Third Division South
league result	12th
cup1	FA Cup
cup1 result	1st round
(eliminated by
Torquay United)
league topscorer
Kevin McCurley (29)
season topscorer
Kevin McCurley (29)
highest attendance	13,176
v Ipswich Town, 26 December 1955
lowest attendance	4,811
v Millwall, 11 February 1956
average attendance	7,668
largest win	5–0
v Swindon Town, 3 March 1956
largest loss	0–6
v Leyton Orient, 8 September 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	1954–55
nextseason	1956–57

(eliminated by Torquay United) Kevin McCurley (29) Kevin McCurley (29) v Ipswich Town, 26 December 1955 v Millwall, 11 February 1956 v Swindon Town, 3 March 1956 v Leyton Orient, 8 September 1955 The 1955–56 season was Colchester United's 14th season in their history and their sixth 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 in which the club were eliminated by Torquay United in the first round. The season was Benny Fenton's first full campaign in charge, and after building his own squad over the summer, he led Colchester to their highest position since the 1951–52 season with a 12th-placed finish. This came on the back of two consecutive seasons of successful re-election applications.

Season overview

Manager Benny Fenton assembled his own squad for the 1955–56 season, bringing in goalkeeper Percy Ames from Tottenham Hotspur, while also signing a number of players from Scottish junior football including John Fowler, Bobby Hill and Sammy McLeod.

Fenton's side played an exciting attacking game. They scored 76 goals in the league, with Kevin McCurley scoring a club Football League best total of 29 goals, and strike partner Ken Plant scoring 17. Both players notched two hat-tricks each during the season as the club safely finished the campaign in 12th-place.

Colchester played their first game under floodlights on 28 February 1955 when they beat Reading 3–1 at Elm Park. While Layer Road was still bereft of floodlighting, lighting had been installed for training purposes at the ground.

Players

Transfers

In

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Fee
Summer 1955	CF	ENG	Martyn King	Amateur	Free transfer
1 May 1955	GK	ENG	Percy Ames	ENG Tottenham Hotspur	Free transfer
9 June 1955	IF	SCO	Bobby Hill	SCO Easthouses Lily Miners Welfare	Free transfer
20 August 1955	FB	SCO	John Fowler	SCO Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic	Free transfer
20 August 1955	IF	SCO	Sammy McLeod	SCO Easthouses Lily Miners Welfare	Free transfer
September 1955	IF	ENG	Alfred Noble	ENG Briggs Sports	Free transfer
1 September 1955	FB	ENG	George Fisher	ENG Fulham	£1,000
8 September 1955	WG	ENG	Russell Blake	ENG Dedham Old Boys	Free transfer
January 1956	CB	ENG	Brian Dobson	Amateur	Free transfer

Total spending: ~ £1,000

Out

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Fee
End of season	WH	IRL	Austin Dunne	ENG Tonbridge	Released
Summer 1955	FB	ENG	Digger Kettle	ENG Sudbury Town	Free transfer
4 May 1955	WH	SCO	Jimmy Elder	ENG Yeovil Town	Released
4 May 1955	FB	ENG	Fred Lewis	ENG Headington United	Released
4 May 1955	WG	WAL	Cliff Birch	ENG Great Yarmouth Town	Free transfer
July 1955	IF	IRL	Paddy Leonard	ENG Tonbridge	Free transfer
August 1955	IF	SCO	Johnny McKim	ENG Clacton Town	Released
September 1955	CB	ENG	Roy Bicknell	Retired	Retired
March 1956	WG	ENG	Mike Grice	ENG West Ham United	£9,000

Total incoming: ~ £9,000

Match details

Third Division South

Main article: 1955–56 Football League

Results round by round

League table

Matches

Report Fowler Hollis McGuigan Own goal Hartburn Unknown goalscorer Taylor McCurley P. Wright Report Owen Grice Grice P. Wright McLeod Gordon Harburn Day Reeves Plant Grice P. Wright Report Hollis McGuigan Report Plant Parker Grant Report Blackman Reed McCurley Taylor P. Wright McCurley Grice P. Wright Grice McCurley P. Wright Report Dale Fisher P. Wright McCurley Bert Hill Langley McCurley Mulgrew P. Wright

FA Cup

Main article: 1955–56 FA Cup

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	Kevin McCurley	29	0	29
2	ENG	CF	Ken Plant	17	0	17
3	ENG	WG	Peter Wright	9	0	9
4	ENG	WG	Mike Grice	6	0	6
5	ENG	WH	Bob Dale	2	0	2
ENG	WH	Benny Fenton	2	0	2
SCO	FB	John Fowler	2	0	2
SCO	IF	Sammy McLeod	2	0	2
9	ENG	FB	George Fisher	1	0	1
ENG	FB	John Harrison	1	0	1
ENG	WH	Bert Hill	1	0	1
SCO	IF	Bobby Hill	1	0	1
ENG	CB	Reg Stewart	1	0	1
	Own goals	2	0	2
	TOTALS	76	0	76

Clean sheets

Number of games goalkeepers kept a clean sheet.

Place	Nationality	Player	Third Division South	FA Cup	Total
1	ENG	Percy Ames	10	0	10
2	ENG	John Wright	1	0	1
	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	ENG	Percy Ames	20 August 1955	Exeter City	St James Park
FB	SCO	John Fowler	20 August 1955	Exeter City	St James Park
IF	SCO	Sammy McLeod	20 August 1955	Exeter City	St James Park
CB	ENG	Billy Hunt	27 August 1955	Southend United	Layer Road
FB	ENG	George Fisher	1 September 1955	Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic	Layer Road
WG	ENG	Russell Blake	8 September 1955	Leyton Orient	Brisbane Road
IF	ENG	Alfred Noble	27 December 1955	Ipswich Town	Portman Road
CB	ENG	Brian Dobson	24 March 1956	Aldershot	Recreation Ground
IF	SCO	Bobby Hill	2 April 1956	Walsall	Fellows Park

References

General

Books

Websites

Specific

References

(2008). "The Who's Who of Colchester United: The Layer Road Years". Breedon Books.
"Colchester Utd 3–3 Ipswich Town". Coludata.co.uk.
"Colchester Utd 1–2 Millwall". Coludata.co.uk.
"Average Attendance Figures Per Season". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
Hudson, Matt. (11 July 2012). "The 1950s and 1960s". Colchester United FC.
"Appearances". Coludata.co.uk.
"Martyn King". Coludata.co.uk.
"Percy Ames". Coludata.co.uk.
"Bobby Hill". Coludata.co.uk.
"John Fowler". Coludata.co.uk.
"Sammy McLeod". Coludata.co.uk.
"Alfred Noble". Coludata.co.uk.
"George Fisher". Coludata.co.uk.
"Russell Blake". Coludata.co.uk.
"Brian Dobson". Coludata.co.uk.
"Austin Dunne". Coludata.co.uk.
"Digger Kettle". Coludata.co.uk.
"Jimmy Elder". Coludata.co.uk.
"Fred Lewis". Coludata.co.uk.
"Cliff Birch". Coludata.co.uk.
"Paddy Leonard". Coludata.co.uk.
"Johnny McKim". Coludata.co.uk.
"Roy Bicknell". Coludata.co.uk.
"Mike Grice". Coludata.co.uk.
"Goals". Coludata.co.uk.
"Clean sheets (1st team)". Coludata.co.uk.
"Alltime- List of Debuts". Coludaybyday.co.uk.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

colchester-united-f.c.-seasons english-football-clubs-1955–56-season

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1955–56 Colchester United F.C. season — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report