1991–92 Colchester United F.C. season

Season overview

Following Ian Atkins decision to return to Birmingham City in a coaching capacity, new chairman James Bowdidge appointed Roy McDonough in a player-manager role. Having been Atkins' assistant, McDonough promised to abandon Atkins' sweeper system and to instead promote a more attacking formula.

McDonough himself equalled a club record by scoring four goals in a game at Slough Town in August. On 28 September 1991, in Colchester's top-of-the-table clash against rivals Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park, Scott Barrett became the first Colchester goalkeeper to score from open play. His long upfield goal kick in the 90th minute of the game bounced over Wycombe goalkeeper Paul Hyde and sealed what would prove to be a vital 2–1 win.

In November, the U's became the first team to be knocked out of the FA Cup without conceding a goal. After seeing off Burton Albion 5–0 in the fourth qualifying round, they twice drew 0–0 with Exeter City in the first round and following replay, only to lose on penalties.

As 1992 dawned, Colchester found themselves seven points ahead of nearest rivals Wycombe in the league, but 16 home wins in succession failed to shake off their Buckinghamshire counterparts. A poor 4–1 defeat at Welling United and a lackadaisical 4–4 draw at Macclesfield Town threatened to derail the U's attempts to reach the Football League.

Meanwhile, Colchester were focused on their FA Trophy cup run. Kingstonian and Merthyr Tydfil were dispatched in replays following a 2–2 and 0–0 draw respectively. The U's then saw off Morecambe and Telford United convincingly, and then a 4–1 aggregate win over Macclesfield in the semi-final. They progressed to the Wembley final, with the tie to be played after the final fixture of the Conference season.

Going into the last game of the season, it was evident McDonough had delivered on his promise of attacking football. The U's found themselves level on points with Wycombe, but crucially carried an eight-goal advantage. United beat already relegated Barrow 5–0 at Layer Road with a Mike Masters hat-trick sealing the Conference championship. McDonough had scored 29 goals, with 26 for Steve McGavin and 18 for Gary Bennett, with a total of 98 league goals achieved.

A week after the promotion celebrations at Layer Road, a crowd of 32,254 witnessed Colchester United in their first-ever Wembley appearance. A famous non-League double was achieved as they gained revenge over Witton Albion, who had dumped the U's out of the competition last campaign. Colchester won 3–1 courtesy of goals from Mike Masters, Steve McGavin and Nicky Smith. Thousands of fans packed Colchester High Street a few days later as the U's team paraded their trophies around the town.

Players

|- |Paul Roberts||DF||ENG||West Ham||||0||0||ENG Fisher Athletic||28 September 1991||£750 |- ! colspan="12" style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;"| Midfielders |- |Eamonn Collins||MF||IRL||Dublin||||87||5||ENG Portsmouth||May 1989||Free transfer |- |Jason Cook||MF||ENG||Edmonton||||0||0||ENG Southend United||28 September 1991||Free transfer |- |Robbie Devereux||MF||ENG||Great Cornard||||2||0||ENG Cornard United||February 1992||Non-contract |- |Warren Donald||MF/FB||ENG||Hillingdon||||46||1||ENG Northampton Town||27 August 1990||Free transfer |- |Wayne Hannigan||MF||IRL||||||1||0||IRL Home Farm||26 February 1991||Undisclosed |- |Mark Kinsella||MF||IRL||Dublin||||21||0||IRL Home Farm||18 August 1989||Free transfer |- |Nicky Smith||LM||ENG||Berkeley||||41||0||ENG Southend United||18 August 1990||Free transfer |- ! colspan="12" style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;"| Forwards |- |Paul Abrahams||FW/WG||ENG||Colchester||||0||0||Apprentice||26 August 1991||Free transfer |- |Gary Bennett||WG||ENG||Enfield Town||||94||19||ENG Tottenham Hotpsur||21 October 1988||Free transfer |- |Julian Dart||FW||ENG||Luton||||0||0||Apprentice||14 January 1992||Free transfer |- |Roy McDonough||FW||ENG||Solihull||||140||35||ENG Southend United||13 October 1990||Part exchange |- |Steve McGavin||FW||ENG||North Walsham||||8||0||ENG Sudbury Town||1 April 1991||£10,000 |- |Steve Restarick||FW||ENG||Barking||||3||2||ENG West Ham United||Early 1988–89 season||Free transfer |}

Transfers

In

• Total spending: ~ £750

Out

• Total incoming: ~ £15,000

Loans in

Loans out

Match details

Conference

Main article: 1991–92 Football Conference

League table

Results round by round

Matches

McGavin Thompson Donnellan Bennett Ellis McDonough Collins Read Bennett McGavin Barrett McGavin McDonough Anderson Brady McDonough Smith McDonough Elliott Cook English Simpson Bradshaw McGavin McGavin McDonough Bennett English Walsh Cook McGavin D'Auria McDonough Kinsella Smith Humphreys Smith Ransom White McDonough Masters Benton Stewart Masters Stewart Kinsella Masters McDonough Masters Doherty Edwards English McDonough McGavin Smith McDonough

Bob Lord Trophy

Collins Kinsella McGavin Hutchinson Creaser

FA Cup

Main article: 1991–92 FA Cup

McGavin Restarick Kinsella

FA Trophy

Main article: 1991–92 FA Trophy

English Tutt Bennett McGavin Collins McGavin Kinsella Bennett Smith English McDonough Smith McGavin Cook

Squad statistics

Appearances and goals

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

Goalscorers

Disciplinary record

Clean sheets

Number of games goalkeepers kept a clean sheet.

Player debuts

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

References

General

Books

Specific

References

1. (2008). "The Who's Who of Colchester United: The Layer Road Years". Breedon Books.
2. "Our People". The Property Merchant Group.
3. "GM Vauxhall Conference 1991-92". English Non-League Archive.
4. "Colchester Utd 5–0 Barrow". Coludata.co.uk.
5. "Colchester Utd 2–6 Wycombe Wanderers". Coludata.co.uk.
6. "Average Attendance Figures Per Season". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
7. Hudson, Matt. (11 August 2013). "The 1990s and 2000s". Colchester United FC.
8. "Appearances". Coludata.co.uk.
9. "Simon Gray". Coludata.co.uk.
10. "Paul Abrahams". Coludata.co.uk.
11. "Ian Phillips". Coludata.co.uk.
12. "James Goodwin". Coludata.co.uk.
13. "Jason Cook". Coludata.co.uk.
14. "Paul Roberts". Coludata.co.uk.
15. "Sean Duffett". Coludata.co.uk.
16. "Andy Partner". Coludata.co.uk.
17. "Julian Hazel". Coludata.co.uk.
18. "Mike Masters". Coludata.co.uk.
19. "Robbie Devereux". Coludata.co.uk.
20. "Ian Stewart". Coludata.co.uk.
21. "Marcelle Bruce". Coludata.co.uk.
22. "Neale Marmon". Coludata.co.uk.
23. "Gary Osbourne". Coludata.co.uk.
24. "Ian Atkins". Coludata.co.uk.
25. "Mario Walsh". Coludata.co.uk.
26. "Shaun Elliott". Coludata.co.uk.
27. "Dave Martin". Coludata.co.uk.
28. "Wayne Hannigan". Coludata.co.uk.
29. "Steve Restarick". Coludata.co.uk.
30. "Goals". Coludata.co.uk.
31. "Discipline". Coludata.co.uk.
32. "Clean sheets (1st team)". Coludata.co.uk.
33. "Alltime- List of Debuts". Coludaybyday.co.uk.
34. "Slough Town 2–4 Colchester Utd". Coludata.co.uk.
35. "Colchester Utd 4–0 Cheltenham Town". Coludata.co.uk.