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

1978–79 Colchester United F.C. season

Field	Value
club	Colchester United
season	1978–79
chairman	Jack Rippingale
manager	Bobby Roberts
stadium	Layer Road
league	Third Division
league result	7th
cup1	FA Cup
cup1 result	5th round
(eliminated by
Manchester United)
cup2	League Cup
cup2 result	1st round
(eliminated by
Charlton Athletic)
league topscorer
Bobby Gough (16)
season topscorer
Bobby Gough (22)
highest attendance	13,171
v Manchester United, 20 February 1979
lowest attendance	2,311
v Chester, 12 September 1978
average attendance	3,921
largest win	4–0
v Leatherhead, 19 December 1978
5–1
v Tranmere Rovers, 9 May 1979
largest loss	0–4
v Carlisle United, 8 September 1978
pattern_name1	Home
pattern_la1	_white_stripes
pattern_b1	_3whitestripes
pattern_ra1	_white_stripes
leftarm1	0000FF
body1	0000FF
rightarm1	0000FF
shorts1	0000FF
alt1	Football kit (white jersey with blue, vertical stripes; blue shorts; and white socks).
prevseason	1977–78
nextseason	1979–80

(eliminated by Manchester United) (eliminated by Charlton Athletic) Bobby Gough (16) Bobby Gough (22) v Manchester United, 20 February 1979 v Chester, 12 September 1978 v Leatherhead, 19 December 1978 5–1 v Tranmere Rovers, 9 May 1979 v Carlisle United, 8 September 1978 The 1978–79 season was Colchester United's 37th season in their history and second successive season in third tier of English football, the Third Division. Alongside competing in the Third Division, the club also participated in the FA Cup and the League Cup.

Colchester improved on their previous league campaign by one position, finishing in a strong seventh. The U's were eliminated in the League Cup by Charlton Athletic in the first round, but had greater success in the FA Cup. They saw off Oxford United, Leatherhead, Darlington and Newport County before facing Manchester United in the fifth round of the competition at Layer Road. Colchester held on until the 86th-minute before Jimmy Greenhoff broke the deadlock and denied the U's an Old Trafford replay.

Season overview

Bobby Roberts kept the faith in his squad for their second season in the Third Division, but an injury to Eddie Rowles forced him into the transfer market. Despite Colchester suffering financial difficulty, the club spent £15,000 on Millwall forward Trevor Lee, who became the first black player to represent Colchester's first team.

A strong season in the league saw the club finish one position higher than the previous campaign in seventh, narrowly falling short of the promotion places – nine points behind third-placed Swansea City. In the final game of the season, Colchester recorded their then highest-ever away league victory with a 5–1 win at Tranmere Rovers, less than a month after they had stunned champions-elect Watford 3–0 at Vicarage Road on Good Friday.

Colchester had a productive run in the FA Cup, where they disposed of Oxford United 4–2 with Bobby Gough netting a hat-trick. They defeated non-League Leatherhead 4–0 in a replay, and overcame difficult away ties at Darlington and Newport County. In the fifth road, the U's welcomed First Division Manchester United to Layer Road. After the fixture was called off from its original Saturday date, the crowd of 13,171 saw the U's come four minutes within an Old Trafford replay after Jimmy Greenhoff finally broke the deadlock after 86-minutes to send Colchester out.

Players

Transfers

In

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Fee	Ref.
12 August 1978	MF	NIR	Pat Sharkey	ENG Mansfield Town	£10,000	url=http://coludata.co.uk/item.php?pg=player&it=386	title=Pat Sharkey	publisher=Coludata.co.uk	access-date=10 April 2018 }}
September 1978	WG	ENG	Bobby Hodge	ENG Exeter City	£15,000
November 1978	FW	ENG	Trevor Lee	ENG Millwall	£15,000

Total spending: ~ £40,000

Out

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Fee	Ref.
End of season	FB	ENG	Johnny Williams	ENG Margate	Free transfer
31 March 1979	MF	NIR	Pat Sharkey	ENG Peterborough United	£8,000

Total incoming: ~ £8,000

Match details

Third Division

Main article: 1978–79 Football League

Results round by round

|color_-3=green1|color_21-=red1

League table

Matches

Rowles Bonnyman Hamilton Tait Cook Buckley Foley Bowker Gough Evans Gough Bates Walker Gough Dawson Graydon Phillips Chapman Allinson Hodge Wignall James Attley Allinson Wignall Gough Westwood Funnell Gough Wilson Wright Allinson Dowman Cooke Gough Westwood Packer Lee

League Cup

Main article: 1978–79 Football League Cup

Dowman Brisley Robinson

FA Cup

Main article: 1978–79 FA Cup

Foley Seacole Gough Dowman

Squad statistics

Appearances and goals

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

Goalscorers

Place	Nationality	Position	Name	Third Division	FA Cup	League Cup	Total
1	ENG	FW	Bobby Gough	16	6	0	22
2	ENG	FW	Trevor Lee	11	1	0	12
3	ENG	MF	Steve Foley	6	1	0	7
4	ENG	WG	Ian Allinson	5	0	0	5
ENG	CB	Steve Dowman	2	2	1	5
ENG	MF	Eddie Rowles	4	0	1	5
7	ENG	WG	Bobby Hodge	3	1	0	4
ENG	CB	Steve Wignall	4	0	0	4
9	ENG	MF	Paul Dyer	2	0	0	2
ENG	MF	Tony Evans	2	0	0	2
11	ENG	MF	Ray Bunkell	1	0	0	1
ENG	FB	Micky Cook	1	0	0	1
ENG	FB	Mick Packer	1	0	0	1
ENG	CB	Steve Wright	1	0	0	1
	Own goals	1	0	0	1
	TOTALS	60	11	2	73

Disciplinary record

Nationality	Position	Name	Third Division	FA Cup
ENG	FB	Mick Packer	3	1
ENG	MF	Paul Dyer	1	0
ENG	CB	Steve Wignall	1	0
	TOTALS	5	1	0

Clean sheets

Number of games goalkeepers kept a clean sheet.

Place	Nationality	Player	Third Division	FA Cup	League Cup	Total
1	WAL	Mike Walker	12	4	1	17
	TOTALS	12	4	1	17

Player debuts

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

Position	Nationality	Player	Date	Opponent	Ground
MF	NIR	Pat Sharkey	12 August 1978	Charlton Athletic	Layer Road
WG	ENG	Bobby Hodge	27 September 1978	Exeter City	St James Park
FW	ENG	Trevor Lee	3 November 1978	Plymouth Argyle	Layer Road

References

General

Books

Websites

Specific

References

(2008). "The Who's Who of Colchester United: The Layer Road Years". Breedon Books.
"Colchester Utd 0–1 Manchester United". Coludata.co.uk.
"Colchester Utd 2–1 Chester City". Coludata.co.uk.
"Average Attendance Figures Per Season". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
Hudson, Matt. (11 July 2012). "The 1970s and 1980s". Colchester United FC.
"Appearances". Coludata.co.uk.
"Pat Sharkey". Coludata.co.uk.
"Bobby Hodge". Coludata.co.uk.
"Trevor Lee". Coludata.co.uk.
"Johnny Williams". 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-1978–79-season

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1978–79 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