The 1982–83 season was Colchester United's 41st season in their history and second consecutive season in fourth tier of English football, the

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

. Alongside competing in the Fourth Division, the club also participated in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, the League Cup and the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

. Colchester challenged for the top four but once again fell short, on this occasion missing promotion by just two points. A tragic season saw

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

John Lyons take his own life, while Allan Hunter resigned two months later, replaced by his assistant

Cyril Lea Cyril Lea (born 5 August 1934) is a Welsh former footballer. He was born in Wrexham, and was capped on two occasions by Wales. He played for Leyton Orient and Ipswich Town, and was responsible for team selection at Portman Road for two months b ...

in February. In the cups, Colchester were entered into the second and final iteration of the Football League Trophy, which the U's exited at the group stage, which defeats to

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

in the second and first round of the League and FA Cup respectively denied the club a cup run.

Season overview

Allan Hunter continued in his role as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

for the new season, with former

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

coach

his assistant. Colchester led the table undefeated after seven games and earned a League Cup second round tie against

. Following a 0–0 draw at

Layer Road Layer Road was a Football League stadium in Colchester, England. It was only used for football matches and was the home ground of Colchester United before being replaced by the Colchester Community Stadium. The stadium held spectators and was ...

, with

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

international Peter Shilton in inspired form, the U's could not repeat their heroics from 1974 at The Dell, losing 4–2 and making another early exit. The season then took a tragic turn, when in November, just hours after turning out for the U's against Chester City,

John Lyons committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

at his home in

Layer de la Haye Layer de la Haye (often spelled Layer-de-la-Haye; locally known just as Layer) is a small village of around 2,000 people, measured at 1,767 in the 2011 Census, near Colchester in Essex, England. History The village is thought to have been fou ...

. After this incident and having to give up his own playing career, Allan Hunter resigned as manager in January with Colchester in seventh place. Cyril Lea took over initially until the end of the campaign and promptly won eight of his first eleven games. However, four defeats in 17 days during April cost the U's and they finished sixth position in the league, missing promotion by just two points.

Ian Allinson Ian James Robert Allinson (born 1 October 1957) is an English football manager and former player and former manager of St Albans City. In his playing career, Allinson amassed over 300 league appearances for Colchester United in two spells, an ...

ended the season as Colchester's top scorer with 26 league and cup goals, while youth graduate

Tony Adcock Anthony Charles Adcock (born 27 March 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a forward in the Football League for Colchester United, where he holds the goalscoring record with 149 goals in all competitions for the club in two spells ...

scored 17 goals. Veteran goalkeeper Mike Walker, who had missed just nine games in ten seasons for the club, announced his retirement at the end of the season.

Players

Transfers

In

* Total spending: ~ £10,000

Out

* Total incoming: ~ £25,000

Loans in

Loans out

Match details

Fourth Division

Results round by round

League table

Matches

Football League Trophy

League Cup

FA Cup

Squad statistics

Appearances and goals

, - !colspan="16", ''Players who appeared for Colchester who left during the season''

Goalscorers

Disciplinary record

Clean sheets

Number of games goalkeepers kept a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

Player debuts

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

References

General

Books * Websites *

Specific

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colchester United F.C. Season 1982-83 1982-83 English football clubs 1982–83 season