Colchester United

We were in need of more father and son activities that we could engage in, and enjoy together. Having grown up playing and watching football with my father, I thought it would be nice to re-kindle some of those old feelings and memories with my own son. 

It’s almost a year since I took my son Jaden on our first trip to the WHCS to watch the U’s in action.  

 
After some investigation, I was extremely happy to see that the WHCS had a family area, and the club made an extra effort to accommodate young fans. I hadn’t been to a football match in around 10 years, but I was aware of how heated things can get on the day, so this was reassuring. 

 
Tickets booked, we were both excited to go and see our first U’s fixture. The first time we entered the East Stand, we were greeted by the sights and sounds of that great pre-match build up inside of the stadium.

We took our seats and as the match started we were immediately taken in by the brilliant atmosphere on the day. Looking back I think we were both hooked within the first 15 minutes of the match!

With our first game under our belt we both agreed that we would come back for more. It was great to see Jaden come out of his shell and really enjoying himself.

 
Over the last few months of the 12/13 season our love for the club grew and grew.

But more importantly I found that we now had something that we were both quite passionate about, and football on a whole had crept into our lives, giving us some real common ground. Something that maybe we were lacking in our relationship previously.

We could now spend hours together involved in some kind of football related activity, whether it was jumpers for goal posts in the park, a game of FIFA on the Playstation or just a long conversation on the latest Col U news. 

One way or another Col U was really having a positive impact on Jaden. He now had some real heroes; he had also joined the school football club, and now had the dream of becoming a goalkeeper. The 12/13 season game to a close and it was clear that we were both hooked on the U’s.

We seemed to spend most of the summer kicking a football around the back garden, waiting for the 13/14 season to kick-off.

Eventually August came around and we were finally able get back to the WHCS. Those hot summer days sat in the stand in a t-shirt quickly turned into cold dark evenings huddled together over a cup of hot chocolate.

One of the things that really amazed me was that Jaden’s attention span was always fairly ‘small’ like most young children, but he would happily sit through 90 minutes of football, even on the coldest of winter days his concentration would rarely slip off of the game in front of him.

 

Looking back I would like to thank everybody at the club for what has been a great first year following the U’s.

The club has given a young boy a real interest, focus, some real dreams and some great goals (literally). I have no doubt that we will continue to have great days out together at the WHCS. We also look forward to travelling away some time in the future.

Every father and son have cherished memories that they can share for a lifetime, I imagine that Colchester United will play a big part in many of ours.
 

Remember, in 2014/15, U8s go FREE to all Colchester United home league fixtures! So you too can bring your future U's fans along to begin their footballing journey!
DON'T FORGET!