Colchester United
Also written as Colchester.
The club
Colchester United were founded in March 1937 and play at the Colchester Community Stadium in Colchester, Essex, which holds 10,105. They occupied Layer Road for 71 years, from 1937 to 2008. The club are the U's and play in blue and white stripes.
Recent seasons
Colchester have been a fourth-tier club since relegation from League One in 2015/16, and 2026/27 is their eleventh consecutive season in League Two. They were sixth in 2019/20 on a points-per-game basis after the season was curtailed at 37 matches by the pandemic, with 58 points. Then came a long flat stretch: 20th with 51 points in 2020/21, 15th with 55 in 2021/22, 20th with 49 in 2022/23 and 22nd with 45 in 2023/24, which brought them within a place of the relegation zone.
Danny Cowley was appointed head coach on 4 January 2024, having previously managed Portsmouth from March 2021 to January 2023. He steadied the club at once: tenth in 2024/25 with 67 points, then 12th in 2025/26 with 66 points from 46 games, 18 wins, 12 draws and 16 defeats, 62 goals scored and 49 conceded. Jack Payne was top scorer with 11 in all competitions. As of 2 May 2026 Cowley's Colchester record stood at 126 matches, 44 wins, 43 draws and 39 defeats. The 2025/26 cup record was poor, with first-round exits in both the FA Cup and the EFL Cup and elimination in the round of 32 of the EFL Trophy. Average home league attendance was 5,034, the biggest crowd 6,834 against Cambridge United.
Honours and landmarks
Colchester have never won a Football League title. Their honours are the Conference championship of 1991/92, won alongside the FA Trophy the same season for a non-league double, the Southern League title of 1938/39, the Southern League Cup in 1937/38 and 1949/50, the Watney Cup in 1971 and the Essex Senior Cup in 2009/10. They were League One runners-up in 2005/06 and Fourth Division runners-up in 1961/62, and were promoted from the fourth tier in 1965/66, 1973/74 and 1976/77. They were Football League Trophy runners-up in 1996/97.
The highest the club has ever finished is tenth in the Championship in 2006/07, their first season in the second tier. Record attendance at Layer Road was 19,072 for an FA Cup tie against Reading in November 1948, a match abandoned after 35 minutes in fog; the record at the Community Stadium is 10,064 against Norwich City in January 2010. Micky Cook holds the appearance record with 700, Tony Adcock the scoring record with 149. Record fee received is £2.5m for Greg Halford to Reading in 2007, record fee paid £400,000 for Steven Gillespie in 2008.
Notable scorelines
Record league win: 9-1 against Bradford City in 1961. Record league defeat: 0-8 against Leyton Orient in 1988. The match the club is known for nationally is the FA Cup fifth-round tie of 1970/71, when Colchester, then a Fourth Division side, led Leeds United 3-0 at Layer Road in front of 16,000 through two goals from Ray Crawford and one from Dave Simmons, and held on to win 3-2 after Leeds pulled two back. They lost 5-0 to Everton in the quarter-final. From last season, the 6-2 home win over Chesterfield on 4 October 2025 was the standout result.
Head-to-head notes
Colchester do not publish all-time head-to-head records, and the standard reference archives for English clubs blocked automated access, so no all-time record against a 2026/27 opponent is established here. Recent meetings that can be stated: Colchester beat Chesterfield 6-2 at the Community Stadium on 4 October 2025 and lost 3-0 at Chesterfield on 3 March 2026, their heaviest defeat of the season; they beat Cheltenham Town 2-0 at home on 29 November 2025, Kyreece Lisbie scoring after eight minutes and Mbick after 50. Both clubs are in League Two again this season. Colchester also lost 2-0 at home to Charlton Athletic in a pre-season friendly on 28 July 2026.
Right now (2026/27)
Danny Cowley remains head coach, in post since 4 January 2024. The summer was quiet. Centre-back Sean Raggett joined free from Rotherham United on 1 July 2026, left-back Jake Leake from Oldham Athletic on 2 July and midfielder Paul Digby from Dundee on 7 July. Two forwards arrived on season-long loans: Bradley Ihionvien from Peterborough United on 9 July and Leon Chiwome from Wolverhampton Wanderers on 31 July. The one sale was winger Kyreece Lisbie to Reading on 22 June for an undisclosed fee, and Jack Baldwin, Owura Edwards and Matt Macey were among those released at the end of their contracts.
Pre-season took in heavy wins over local sides, 4-0 at Heybridge Swifts and 5-0 at Harlow Town, and defeats to two clubs from higher divisions, 3-2 against West Ham United and 2-0 at home to Charlton Athletic on 28 July. The season opens with a home EFL Cup first-round tie against Southampton on 8 August 2026, easily the most attractive draw the club could have had, and the League Two campaign starts away to Accrington Stanley on 15 August 2026.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchester_United_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Colchester_United_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Colchester_United_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Colchester_United_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_EFL_League_Two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_League_Two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Cowley
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.