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Previous Cup meetings with Colchester

FA CUP

Season  RD   H/A   Score   Goalscorers
2015-16  4    A     4-1    Chadli (2), Dier, 
                           Carroll

Will we see Troy at Colchester?

Did you know? - the Roman name for Colchester was Camulodunum. Colchester is reputed to be the oldest town in Britain. Not that Troy is a Roman name, but it is certainly one with classic status. Perhaps we will see Troy - Parrott of course - tonight!

The only previous time we played Colchester in a competitive game was on 30th January, 2016 in a 4th Round FA Cup game. Colchester were in League One then and had beaten a couple of non-league sides in the first two rounds, then Charlton 2-1 in the Third Round. Since we last met Colchester's Weston Homes Community Stadium was renamed in 2018 and is now the JobServe Community Stadium. We won that FA Cup game 4-1 with goals by Nacer Chadli (2), Eric Dier and Tom Carroll.

That was Carroll's last Spurs goal (3 that season) before his permanent move to Swansea the following season. Tom is not getting much game time now, having spent the latter part of last term with Aston Villa on loan. Tom's only appearance to date this season has been in a 6-0 win by The "Swans" over Cambridge in the last round of the Carabao Cup. Our own Jack Roles played 90 minutes for Cambridge in that game.

In theory 9 of the Spurs squad of 18 who travelled to Colchester in January 2016 could be involved in this Carabao Cup third Round game, but that is not likely. Those 8 players were Lloris, Dier, Davies, Lamela, Eriksen, Kane, Son, Alderweireld and Dele Alli. Hugo will surely continue his period of paternity leave, before hopefuly returning on Saturday, and others such as Lamela, Son and Alderweireld could be rested too.

By my reckoning, even fewer players from the Colchester squad survive the three and a half years (plus) since the teams last met. That could be one player - centre back Tom Eastman, signed in 2011 from Ipswich, who has now played well over 300 games in all competitions for the "U"s. Eastman, now 27, has scored twice this season. One of those goals came in a 3-0 home win against Swindon in the first round of The Carabao Cup. Eastman's other goal came in another 3-0 win against "The Robins". That was in their away league meeting last Tuesday evening.

Colchester were relegated at the end of the 2015-16 season and remain in League Two. They are currently in 10th place after 10 games, and their priority must surely be to at least be involved in the promotion play-offs at the end of this season.

The "U"s had a fantastic night of course when they conquered Crystal Palace in the penalty shoot-out at the end of a second round 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park last month. Their top scorer is 26 year old Luke Norris, born in Stevenage and in his second season at Colchester after two years with Swindon. Norris has four league goals to his name, but hasn't scored since 24th August. Jamaican International Theo Robinson scored two goals in that 3-0 win last week at Swindon, and may be more of a threat. Also in Colchester's squad is Frank Nouble. Nouble has two goals this season, and played against us for Newport in our Fourth Round FA Cup tie in January and February last year.

Manager John McGreal took over from previous manager Kevin Keen in May 2016. This is his first managerial post. Aged 47, in his playing days McGreal (a centre back) was with Tranmere for 9 seasons, Ipswich for 5, and finally spent 3 seasons with Burnley until 2007. Those were all championship seasons for Burnley. McGreal played some Premier League football for Ipswich and scored the winning goal for Ipswich against us in January 2002.

Colchester's record Cup victory was in the FA Cup 1st Round against Leamington in November 2005. They won 9-1, and one of the goals was scored by Spurs player Mark Yeates - then on loan with the "U"s. Yeates spent further loans with Hull and Leicester before transferring to Colchester in 2007, playing there for two seasons, before continuing his long career with various clubs. Mark is now 34 and is still playing football, currently in the National League with AFC Fylde.

With our prime focus on Saturday's Premier League game and next week's Champions League game against Bayern Munich it is inevitable that Mauricio Pochettino will rest players. He has already suggested that young players will be involved. However, there are first team players who need game time and we should still field a team capable of beating moderate opponents well.

Centre-back Japhet Tanganga had a good pre-season on tour with Spurs, and has very little game time with the PL2 side. I understand he travelled to Leicester on Saturday as did Troy Parrott. Both could be involved tonight. It seems that Ryan Sessegnon is still not ready to play. Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama need minutes on the field. Perhaps we will see a starting line-up of Gazzaniga; Walker-Peters, Dier, Vertonghen, Davies; Wanyama, Skipp; Lucas Moura, Dele, Eriksen; Parrott. There may be youngsters on the bench, but as Harvey White and Jamie Bowden played in last night's 4-0 PL2 defeat away to Blackburn, it does not look as if either of them will be present. I'll predict a 3-0 Spurs win.

There are one or two newspaper articles today (24th September, 2019) about Colchester's 31 year old defender and captain Luke Prosser, who is desperate to play against his old club and hoping to grab Harry Kane's shirt after the game. Prosser was turned down by Spurs Academy as a 15 year old and I cannot find any reference to him in the extensive archive of Spurs Odyssey reports, except for the occasion he was an unused substitute for Port Vale at White Hart Lane in a November 2006 League Cup tie.

The Fourth Round draw will be live on SKY Sports after Wednesday night's games.

Match referee Jarred Gillett is an Australian national, aged 32. Mr. Gillett is one the most experienced officials in the Australian A league, but has come to England to study at Liverpool University - specialising in research on children with cerebral palsy. He is an experienced Video Assistant referee and has been appointed to PGMOL's Select Group 2 list of officials for this season. Mr. Gillett has already officiated in three games at the end of last season, 5 championship games this season plus Aston Villa's 6-1 win at Crewe in the previous round of this competition. There is no VAR in this game, and in the event of the scores being level, there will be no extra time, but a penalty shoot-out.

· "Ten Years After" - Spurs Odyssey reviews the season in which we first qualified for the Champions League. 10 years ago on September 23rd, we beat Preston North End 5-1 away at the same stage of the League Cup. Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick. The only other hat-trick "Crouchie" scored in our senior colours was against Young Boys a year later in the Champions League Play-Off round.

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