2020–21 Colchester United F.C. season

The 2020–21 season is Colchester United's 84th season in their history and their fifth successive season competing in League Two. Along with competing in League Two, the club will also participate in the FA Cup, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy.

Colchester United

2020–21 season
Owner	Robbie Cowling
Chairman	Robbie Cowling
Head coach	Steve Ball
Stadium	Colchester Community Stadium
Home colours

Season overview

Pre-season

Colchester's place in League Two for the 2020–21 season was confirmed on 22 June 2020 following a 3–2 aggregate defeat to Exeter City in the semi-final of the League Two play-offs.[1]

Chairman Robbie Cowling had already announced on 27 April 2020 that four first-team players would be released at the end of their contracts on 30 June. These players included Brandon Comley, Ryan Jackson, Frank Nouble, and club captain Luke Prosser. Citing the coronavirus outbreak, Cowling admitted under normal circumstances he "would have been determined to re-sign" the released players.[2]

The following day, the club also released a list of twelve further players who would not be offered new deals on the expiry of their current contracts. These included Dean Ager, Callum Anderson, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Louis Dunne, Chandler Hallett, Tyrique Hyde, Luke Ige, Tariq Issa, Cameron James, Callum Jones, Percy Kiangebeni, and Bailey Vose.[3]

On 14 July, Cowling released a statement to announce that John McGreal had left the club after four years as head coach.[4]

Ethan Ross left the club on 24 July to join League One side Lincoln City.[5]

On 28 July, McGreal's former assistant Steve Ball was announced as his successor.[6]

Players

As of 9 August 2020[7][8][9]

No.	Name	Position	Nat.	Place of birth	Date of birth	Apps	Goals	Signed from	Date signed	Fee
Goalkeepers
1	Dean Gerken	GK		Southend-on-Sea	(1985-05-22)22 May 1985 (aged 35)	170	0	Ipswich Town	13 July 2019[lower-alpha 1]	Free transfer
29	Callum Coulter	GK			(2000-10-24)24 October 2000 (aged 19)	0	0	Academy		Free transfer
Defenders
2	Miles Welch-Hayes	RB		Oxford	(1996-10-25)25 October 1996 (aged 23)	1	0	Macclesfield Town	21 February 2020	Free transfer
3	Cohen Bramall	LB		Crewe	(1996-04-02)2 April 1996 (aged 24)	32	2	Arsenal	2 August 2019	Free transfer
6	Omar Sowunmi	CB		Colchester	(1995-11-07)7 November 1995 (aged 24)	11	0	Yeovil Town	1 July 2019	Undisclosed
17	Miquel Scarlett	RB/MF		Lambeth	(2000-09-27)27 September 2000 (aged 19)	0	0	Gillingham		Free transfer
18	Tom Eastman	CB		Colchester	(1991-10-21)21 October 1991 (aged 28)	362	20	Ipswich Town	19 May 2011	Free transfer
19	Ollie Kensdale	CB		Colchester	(2000-04-20)20 April 2000 (aged 20)	5	0	Academy	12 July 2016	Free transfer
21	Ryan Clampin	LB/LW		Colchester	(1999-01-29)29 January 1999 (aged 21)	18	1	Academy		Free transfer
27	Matthew Weaire	CB			(2001-08-20)20 August 2001 (aged 18)	0	0	Brighton & Hove Albion	2 July 2019	Free transfer
30	Al-Amin Kazeem	LB			(2002-04-06)6 April 2002 (aged 18)	0	0	Academy		Free transfer
41	Danny Collinge	DF		Haywards Heath	(1998-04-09)9 April 1998 (aged 22)	0	0	VfB Stuttgart	18 June 2019	Undisclosed
Midfielders
4	Tom Lapslie	CM		Waltham Forest	(1995-10-05)5 October 1995 (aged 24)	157	4	Academy	25 April 2013	Free transfer
8	Harry Pell	MF		Tilbury	(1991-10-21)21 October 1991 (aged 28)	61	10	Cheltenham Town	10 May 2018	Undisclosed
10	Jevani Brown	AM		Letchworth	(1994-10-16)16 October 1994 (aged 25)	17	0	Cambridge United	4 July 2019	Undisclosed
14	Noah Chilvers	AM		Chelmsford	(2001-02-22)22 February 2001 (aged 19)	5	0	Academy	3 July 2017	Free transfer
16	Diaz Wright	MF		Greenwich	(1998-02-22)22 February 1998 (aged 22)	14	0	Academy	30 June 2016	Free transfer
24	Ben Stevenson	MF		Leicester	(1997-03-23)23 March 1997 (aged 23)	63	4	Wolves	30 January 2019	Undisclosed
25	Andre Hasanally	MF		Waltham Forest	(2002-02-10)10 February 2002 (aged 18)	2	0	Academy		Free transfer
31	Sammie McLeod	MF			(2000-04-23)23 April 2000 (aged 20)	0	0	Maldon & Tiptree	7 June 2019	Undisclosed
Forwards
7	Courtney Senior	WG		Croydon	(1998-02-11)11 February 1998 (aged 22)	106	14	Brentford	28 June 2016	Free transfer
9	Luke Norris	CF		Stevenage	(1993-06-03)3 June 1993 (aged 26)	78	19	Swindon Town	27 June 2018	Undisclosed
11	Paris Cowan-Hall	WG		Hillingdon	(1990-10-05)5 October 1990 (aged 29)	10	2	Wycombe Wanderers	4 July 2019	Free transfer
15	Callum Harriott	WG		Norbury	(1994-03-04)4 March 1994 (aged 26)	49	10	Reading	5 September 2019[lower-alpha 1]	Free transfer
20	Michael Fernandes	WG		Hounslow	(1999-06-24)24 June 1999 (aged 20)	0	0	Farnborough	1 July 2019	Undisclosed
26	Luke Gambin	WG		Sutton	(1993-03-16)16 March 1993 (aged 27)	37	2	Luton Town	26 June 2019	Free transfer
28	Ollie Sims	WG		Bury St Edmunds	(2001-03-29)29 March 2001 (aged 19)	0	0	Academy	3 July 2017	Free transfer
32	Jake Hutchinson	CF			(2002-05-08)8 May 2002 (aged 18)	0	0	Academy		Free transfer
49	Kwame Poku	WG			(2001-08-11)11 August 2001 (aged 18)	38	5	Worthing	17 May 2019	Undisclosed
	Diogo Freitas-Gouveia	WG			(2001-10-06)6 October 2001 (aged 18)	0	0	Academy		Free transfer

1. Date of signing refers to the date of the player's signing for his second spell with the club

Transfers and contracts

Out

Date	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Fee	Ref.
30 June 2020	AM		Dean Ager	Free agent	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	MF		Callum Anderson	Haverhill Rovers[lower-alpha 1]	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	WG		Jamal Campbell-Ryce	Free agent	Retired	[3]
30 June 2020	MF		Brandon Comley	Bolton Wanderers[lower-alpha 2]	Released	[2]
30 June 2020	MF		Louis Dunne	Free agent	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	GK		Chandler Hallett	Free agent	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	MF		Tyrique Hyde	Free agent	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	RB		Luke Ige	Free agent	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	FW		Tariq Issa	Free agent	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	RB		Ryan Jackson	Gillingham[lower-alpha 3]	Released	[2]
30 June 2020	CB/FB/DM		Cameron James	Chelmsford City[lower-alpha 4]	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	CF		Callum Jones	Free agent	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	DF		Percy Kiangebeni	Free agent	Released	[3]
30 June 2020	CF		Frank Nouble	Plymouth Argyle[lower-alpha 5]	Released	[2]
30 June 2020	CB		Luke Prosser	Stevenage[lower-alpha 6]	Released	[2]
30 June 2020	GK		Bailey Vose	Free agent	Released	[3]
24 July 2020	GK		Ethan Ross	Lincoln City	Undisclosed	[5]

1. Following Callum Anderson's release by Colchester United, he later signed for Haverhill Rovers.[10]
2. Following Brandon Comley's release by Colchester United, he later signed for Bolton Wanderers.[11]
3. Following Ryan Jackson's release by Colchester United, he later signed for Gillingham.[12]
4. Following Cameron James' release by Colchester United, he later signed for Chelmsford City.[13]
5. Following Frank Nouble's release by Colchester United, he later signed for Plymouth Argyle.[14]
6. Following Luke Prosser's release by Colchester United, he later signed for Stevenage.[15]

Match details

Pre-season friendlies

On 13 August 2020, Colchester United announced pre-season home friendlies against Gillingham and Ipswich Town. The first against Gillingham involved players playing no more than 45 minutes each, while the U's hosted two 75-minute long games against Ipswich on the same day.[16]

Colchester United v Gillingham

15 July 2020 (2020-07-15) Friendly	Colchester United	0–2	Gillingham	Colchester
13:30 BST		Report Report	O'Keefe  21' Ogilvie  52'	Stadium: Colchester Community Stadium Referee: C Hicks

Colchester United v Ipswich Town

18 July 2020 (2020-07-18) Friendly	Colchester United	v	Ipswich Town	Colchester
18:00 BST				Stadium: Colchester Community Stadium

Colchester United v Ipswich Town

18 July 2020 (2020-07-18) Friendly	Colchester United	v	Ipswich Town	Colchester
20:00 BST				Stadium: Colchester Community Stadium

League Two

Main article: 2020–21 EFL League Two

Results round by round

Matchday	1
Ground
Result
Position

Updated to match(es) played on pre-season. Source: 11v11 for league tables and fixtures
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
3	Bradford City	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Promotion to the EFL League One
4	Cambridge United	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Qualification for League Two play-offs
5	Carlisle United	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Cheltenham Town	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Colchester United	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Crawley Town	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	Exeter City	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	Forest Green Rovers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	Grimsby Town	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on 12 September 2020. Source: EFL Official Website
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head results; 5) Wins; 6) Away goals; 7) Penalty points (sec 9.5); 8) 12-point sending off offences[17]

See also

• List of Colchester United F.C. seasons

References

1. Pilnick, Brent (22 June 2020). "Exeter City 3–1 Colchester United (agg: 3–2): Ryan Bowman earns League Two play-off semi-final win". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
2. "Colchester United: Nouble, Prosser, Jackson and Comley set to leave club". BBC Sport. 27 April 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
3. Gregory, David (28 April 2020). "Young U's Set To Depart". Colchester United FC. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
4. "John McGreal: Colchester United part company with head coach". BBC Sport. 14 July 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
5. "Ethan Ross: Lincoln City sign goalkeeper from Colchester". BBC Sport. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
6. "Colchester United: Steve Ball named new head coach". BBC Sport. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
7. "First Team Profiles". Colchester United FC. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
8. "FootballSquads". BBC Sport. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
9. "Colchester United FC". Soccerway. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
10. Claydon, Russell (8 August 2020). "Former Colchester United Academy and Maldon & Tiptree midfielder Callum Anderson signs for Haverhill Rovers". Haverhill Echo. Bury St Edmunds. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
11. "Brandon Comley: Bolton Wanderers sign midfielder on two-year deal". BBC Sport. 21 July 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
12. "Ryan Jackson: Gillingham re-sign defender for second spell with club". BBC Sport. 31 July 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
13. Berry, Chris (6 August 2020). "Cameron James Agrees Terms". Chelmsford City FC. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
14. "Frank Nouble: Plymouth sign former Colchester forward Nouble". BBC Sport. 3 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
15. Waldron, Jonathan (10 August 2020). "Ex-Colchester United captain Luke Prosser joins Stevenage". Daily Gazette. Colchester. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
16. Gregory, David (13 August 2020). "Pre-Season Games To Be Streamed Live". Colchester United FC. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
17. "EFL Regulations Section 3 – The League; subsection 9 – Method of Determining League Positions". EFL. Retrieved 30 July 2019.