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

1961–62 Colchester United F.C. season

Field	Value
club	Colchester United
season	1961–62
chairman	Bill Allen
manager	Benny Fenton
stadium	Layer Road
league	Fourth Division
league result	2nd (promoted)
cup1	FA Cup
cup1 result	1st round
(eliminated by
Peterborough United)
cup2	League Cup
cup2 result	1st round
(eliminated by
Crewe Alexandra)
league topscorer
Bobby Hunt (38)
season topscorer
Bobby Hunt (40)
highest attendance	10,653
v Peterborough United, 6 November 1961
lowest attendance	3,782
v Oldham Athletic, 23 December 1961
average attendance	5,532
largest win	9–1
v Bradford City, 30 December 1961
largest loss	0–5
v York City, 7 October 1961
pattern_name1	Home
pattern_la1	_white_stripes
pattern_b1	_whitestripes3
pattern_ra1	_white_stripes
pattern_so1	_color_2_stripes_blue
leftarm1	0000FF
body1	0000FF
rightarm1	0000FF
shorts1	FFFFFF
socks1	FFFFFF
alt1	Football kit (white jersey with blue, vertical stripes; white shorts; and white socks with two blue, horizontal hoops).
prevseason	1960–61
nextseason	1962–63

(eliminated by Peterborough United) (eliminated by Crewe Alexandra) Bobby Hunt (38) Bobby Hunt (40) v Peterborough United, 6 November 1961 v Oldham Athletic, 23 December 1961 v Bradford City, 30 December 1961 v York City, 7 October 1961 The 1961–62 season was Colchester United's 20th season in their history and their first-ever season in the fourth tier of English football, the Fourth Division. Alongside competing in the Fourth Division, the club also participated in the FA Cup and the League Cup.

Colchester bounced back to the Third Division at the first time of asking, earning their first promotion in the club's history by finishing as runners–up. By the end of the campaign, Colchester trailed Millwall by just one point, winning 23 games and scoring 104 league goals with Bobby Hunt the division's top scorer. The club experienced their record victory during the season when they beat Bradford City 9–1 on 30 December.

In the cup competitions, first-round exits were experienced in both FA and League cups. Colchester were beaten at home to Crewe Alexandra in September in the League Cup, while it took Peterborough United three attempts to overcome Colchester in the FA Cup first round following a second replay.

Season overview

At the end of a very disappointing 1960–61 season, manager Benny Fenton cut his playing squad by ten players, with players including Neil Langman, Chic Milligan and Tommy Williams all released. The club was over £3,300 in debt, and so a fresh start required for the new season with a new, slimline squad. Just 17 players would be used in the new campaign, with eight of those playing over 40 of the 44 league games possible.

The season started well for Colchester, unbeaten in their first nine league games and scoring 31 goals in the first eight home games to top the Fourth Division table.

During Colchester's heaviest defeat of the season, a 5–0 reverse at York City, the 20-month old son of full back Tommy Millar drowned in a garden pond accident while Millar was playing in the game. This tragedy would also spell the end of Millar's Colchester career when he left to return to Scotland in early 1962. This coincided with a poor run of form and the club slipped to third in the table.

On the back of a 4–1 Boxing Day defeat to Bradford City, Colchester set their record club victory in the return fixture at Layer Road on 30 December. Both Bobby Hunt and strike–partner Martyn King scored four goals each, with Bobby Hill scoring the other as Colchester ran out 9–1 winners. A 4–0 victory at Accrington Stanley saw United regain the top spot from Wrexham, but just a few weeks later, Accrington folded and Colchester's 3–2 and 4–0 wins were expunged.

Defeats to Millwall and Wrexham cost Colchester the championship. Millwall took the title by one point as United finished runners-up with eleven away defeats proving costly. Of the record 104 goals scored in the league during the season, 78 came at home, while Martyn King broke his seasonal record by scoring 31 league goals only to be surpassed by Bobby Hunt with 38, a new club record. Hunt scored three hat-tricks on his way to his tally of 38 with two of those four goal hauls.

Players

Transfers

In

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Fee
May 1961	WG	ENG	Mike Foster	ENG Leicester City	Nominal
1 May 1961	WH	ENG	Brian Abrey	ENG Chelsea	Free transfer
June 1961	FB	ENG	Richie Griffiths	ENG Colchester Casuals	Free transfer
August 1961	CB	ENG	Mick Loughton	Amateur	Free transfer
August 1961	WG	ENG	Colin Lundstrum	ENG Ipswich Town	Free transfer
4 September 1961	WH	SCO	John Brown	SCO Dunbar United	Nominal
4 September 1961	CB	SCO	Duncan Forbes	SCO Musselburgh Athletic	Nominal
18 November 1961	CF	ENG	David Coleman	ENG Harwich & Parkeston	Free transfer

Out

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Fee
End of season	GK	ENG	John Wright	ENG Great Bentley	Released
End of season	WH	ENG	Cyril Hammond	ENG Severalls Athletic	Released
End of season	FB	ENG	John Laidlaw	ENG Clacton Town	Released
End of season	WH	ENG	Derek Parker	ENG Stowmarket Town	Player-manager
End of season	WG	ENG	Tommy Williams	ENG Watford	Released
Summer 1961	FB	ENG	Peter Carey	ENG Aldershot	Released
Summer 1961	FB	ENG	Alan Eagles	ENG Queens Park Rangers	Released
27 January 1962	FB	SCO	Tommy Millar	SCO Dundee United	Free transfer

Match details

Fourth Division

Main article: 1961–62 Football League

Results round by round

|color_-4=green1|color_21-=red1

League table

Matches

King Wright Millar Johnstone King Millar King Foster King Report Foster Millar King Report Blore Jones King Wright Harris King McLeod Millar Davies Davies King McLeod Harris Abrey King McQuade Brady King King Wright King Wright B. Hunt King Foster Wright B. Hunt B. Hunt King Harris Smith Morgans Report Report Hill Wright B. Hunt King King Hill Wright B. Hunt King Kemp Robertson Maddison Tighe Wheatley Harris McLeod Wright B. Hunt Bonson

League Cup

Main article: 1961–62 Football League Cup

FA Cup

Main article: 1961–62 FA Cup

Bly Hudson Wright B. Hunt

B. Hunt Emery

Squad statistics

Appearances and goals

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

Goalscorers

Place	Nationality	Position	Name	Fourth Division	FA Cup	League Cup	Total
1	ENG	FW	Bobby Hunt	38	2	0	40
2	ENG	CF	Martyn King	31	1	1	33
3	ENG	WG	Peter Wright	12	1	0	13
4	ENG	WG	Mike Foster	8	0	0	8
5	ENG	WH	Trevor Harris	4	0	0	4
SCO	FB	Tommy Millar	4	0	0	4
7	SCO	IF	Bobby Hill	3	0	0	3
SCO	IF	Sammy McLeod	3	0	0	3
9	ENG	WH	Brian Abrey	1	1	0	2
	Own goals	0	0	0	0
	TOTALS	104	5	1	110

Disciplinary record

Nationality	Position	Name	Fourth Division	FA Cup	League Cup	Total
ENG	CF	Martyn King	0	1	0	0
	TOTALS	0	1	0	0	0

Clean sheets

Number of games goalkeepers kept a clean sheet.

Place	Nationality	Player	Fourth Division	FA Cup	League Cup	Total
1	ENG	Percy Ames	12	0	0	12
	TOTALS	12	0	0	12

Player debuts

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

Position	Nationality	Player	Date	Opponent	Ground
WH	ENG	Brian Abrey	19 August 1961	Stockport County	Layer Road
WG	ENG	Mike Foster	19 August 1961	Stockport County	Layer Road
CF	ENG	David Coleman	18 November 1961	Rochdale	Spotland Stadium
WG	ENG	Colin Lundstrum	15 January 1962	Mansfield Town	Field Mill
FB	ENG	Richie Griffiths	3 February 1962	Hartlepools United	Victoria Park
CB	SCO	Duncan Forbes	14 April 1962	Crewe Alexandra	Gresty Road

References

General

Books

Websites

Specific

References

(2008). "The Who's Who of Colchester United: The Layer Road Years". Breedon Books.
"Colchester Utd 2–2 Peterborough United". Coludata.co.uk.
"Colchester Utd 5–1 Oldham Athletic". 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.
"Mike Foster". Coludata.co.uk.
"Brian Abrey". Coludata.co.uk.
"Richie Griffiths". Coludata.co.uk.
"Mick Loughton". Coludata.co.uk.
"Colin Lundstrum". Coludata.co.uk.
"John Brown". Coludata.co.uk.
"Duncan Forbes". Coludata.co.uk.
"David J Coleman". Coludata.co.uk.
"John Wright". Coludata.co.uk.
"Cyril Hammond". Coludata.co.uk.
"John Laidlaw". Coludata.co.uk.
"Derek Parker". Coludata.co.uk.
"Tommy Williams". Coludata.co.uk.
"Peter Carey". Coludata.co.uk.
"Alan Eagles". Coludata.co.uk.
"Tommy Millar". Coludata.co.uk.
"Goals". Coludata.co.uk.
"Discipline". 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-1961–62-season

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1961–62 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