COLONIA CASTRA CUCKOOS v COCKERELS?

It is the Fourth Round of the FA Cup tomorrow and I have two interests in Colchester United and many in the Tottenham Hotspur party. But I am not going to bang on about Tottenham being beaten by the Old Carrthusians all those years ago, or the fact that I saw the famed "Double" team play at White Hart Lane in 1960-1, or that a very kind OC arranged for the Spurs Vets (Ralph Coates and all) to play at Charterhouse against a mixed XI of staff, old boys and boys or that my good colleague Bob Noble, a Baggies fan, arranged a miracle retirement match for me at WHL with the great help of my successor at Charterhouse, David Howells, a Spurs' legend.

No, it is Colchester United that I am interested in. Their manager is Kevin Keen, whom I coached many years ago, when he was playing for English Schools' FA Under 18s, prior to signing professional forms at West Ham. He was a treasure and one of the brightest kids, signing forms for Wycombe Wanderers at 15 years and 209 days, in September 1982, the youngest player ever to do this. His father was Mike Keen, a professional and well respected coach, so he had a good upbringing. Kevin went on the play over 500 professional games at West Ham United (10 years), Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City and was player then care-taker manager for Macclesfield and West Ham in the Football League before nestling down at Colchester in 2015.

The other link is Chris Porter, an Independent School footballer, who played against Charterhouse in the Boodles' ISFA Cup tournament in 1999-2000 for his Lancashire school, Queen Elizabeth's GS, Blackburn. We beat them! Porter did score a winning ISFA Cup Final goal against Brentwood School the following year. He joined Bury, Oldham, Motherwell, Derby County in 2009 and then Sheffield United appearing in the League One play offs. He was loaned out to Shrewsbury and finally Colchester.

So the ko is tomorrow at 12.45 at the Community Stadium, at Cuckoo Farm, a ground that has just over 10,000 capacity and was opened in 2008. Founded only in 1937 as Colchester United, the club grew out of the original "town team", Colchester Town, which eventually was disbanded. It was not until 1950 that United left the Southern League to rise to the Football League proper.

A great success include beating Don Revie's Leeds Utd in 1971, in the FA Cup and their worst failure probably being relegated to the Conference in 1990, but returning to the FL in 1992 and League One most recently. Ken Aston, one of the country's best known referees, came from the town.