Colchester United promotion winners are reunited at anniversary dinner

COLCHESTER United’s 2006 promotion winners were reunited on a special evening filled with celebration and nostalgia. Members of the U’s 2005/06 League One squad that clinched a historic promotion to the Championship for the first time in the club’s history assembled again at an anniversary dinner, at the JobServe Community Stadium. Players from the all-conquering squad including Karl Duguid, Wayne Brown, Kevin Watson and Pat Baldwin all gathered at the event, celebrating 20 years since that superb season under Phil Parkinson. John White, Mark Cousins and Gareth Williams were also in attendance, along with physio Stuart Ayles and kit man, Brian Pugh. There were also video messages from Phil Parkinson, Aidan Davison, Chris Iwelumo, Richard Garcia and Mark Yeates. The promotion winners told stories about their special season and looked back on that memorable campaign, sharing the evening with many U’s supporters who followed their team every step of the way in that historic season for the club. In his video message, Parkinson recalled the final game of the season against Yeovil Town, where Colchester clinched promotion to the Championship, as his most memorable game of the campaign while goalkeeper Davison highlighted their 1-0 at Hartlepool United in December, 2005 as a key moment in their success. Davison also made reference to the influence of Colchester’s former ground, Layer Road, in their promotion and also their highest-ever 10th place finish in the Championship, the following year. He said: “Layer Road was a real fortress for us – we used to always know if there were opposition players and teams who didn’t fancy it just by looking at them, before the game.” Former U’s captain Duguid highlighted the togetherness and team spirit within the squad and gave special mention to David Gregory, whose winning penalty in the 1-0 win over Torquay United in the division three play-off final at Wembley Stadium in 1998 paved the way for the promotion, eight years later. There was also time for reflection, with tributes paid to former Colchester chairman Peter Heard, who died last month, along with ex-U’s coach Brian Owen, who was a big part of Parkinson’s team in that fantastic season. Duguid also paid a special tribute to Chris Barker, who was a key member of the U’s squad in the 2006/07 and tragically died in 2020.