1980–81 Colchester United F.C. season
season of football team
The 1980–81 season was Colchester United's 39th season in their history and fourth 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.
On the back of the success of the previous season, Colchester crashed out of the Third Division, relegated in 22nd-position. Several winless streaks contributed to their downfall. In the cup competitions, the U's were defeated in the first round of the League Cup by Gillingham, while Watford overcame Colchester in the third round of the FA Cup.
Season overview
The club's chairman warned financial difficulties would result in an exodus of players, but in the summer months, only Steve Dowman left the club, joining Wrexham for £75,000. The club also received their first-ever shirt sponsorship from Royal London Insurance.
In the opening game of the season in the League Cup against Gillingham, debutant Nigel Crouch became the first Colchester player to be sent off on their debut following an altercation with Gillingham's Steve Bruce. Colchester failed to win any of their opening eight games. When they beat Millwall 3–0 in their ninth game, it attracted national media coverage.
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This entry incorporates text from “1980–81 Colchester United F.C. season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.