Supporter Andrew Weston is first up with his Southend story.
The U's take on their Essex rivals Southend United in under two weeks time, as the Essex Derby returns to the League One fixture list for the first time since February 2010.
Earlier in the week, we asked you to send us in your Southend stories, whether it be your favourite match, your favourite player to have done something memorable in one of those games, or a slightly alternative twist on the theme.
Our first story, from U's fan Andrew Weston, certainly fits that latter bracket, as he seeks desperately to watch the Easter Monday game back in April 2007.
Southend Stories: Andrew Weston
I therefore only had one thing I could do - use my "knowledge" of Slovak (virtually none, but more than my friend's) to manufacture a reason for not staying there and then suggest that my friend and I moved to a different town that (coincidentally) would have satellite TV.
Zilina, though, turned out to be little more than an arcade of shops with a casino attached to it. It did have an Irish Bar, but it was the only Irish Bar in the world not to have a TV.
This meant that as long as I could find a bar in Zilina, where we were headed, which had satellite TV, I'd be able to watch the game.
Two days before Colchester took on Southend, I realised the enormity of my error, but saw a glimmer of hope - the game would be on Sky.
In April 2007, I'd somehow accidentally booked myself on a plane to Slovakia with a friend. However, my Slovak was desperately, desperately poor and had to be augmented by whatever I could pick up on the way to the restaurant that night.
Earlier in the week, we asked you to send us in your Southend stories, whether it be your favourite match, your favourite player to have done something memorable in one of those games, or a slightly alternative twist on the theme.
Our first story, from U's fan Andrew Weston, certainly fits that latter bracket, as he seeks desperately to watch the Easter Monday game back in April 2007.
Southend Stories: Andrew Weston
I therefore only had one thing I could do - use my "knowledge" of Slovak (virtually none, but more than my friend's) to manufacture a reason for not staying there and then suggest that my friend and I moved to a different town that (coincidentally) would have satellite TV.
Zilina, though, turned out to be little more than an arcade of shops with a casino attached to it. It did have an Irish Bar, but it was the only Irish Bar in the world not to have a TV.
This meant that as long as I could find a bar in Zilina, where we were headed, which had satellite TV, I'd be able to watch the game.
Two days before Colchester took on Southend, I realised the enormity of my error, but saw a glimmer of hope - the game would be on Sky.
In April 2007, I'd somehow accidentally booked myself on a plane to Slovakia with a friend. However, my Slovak was desperately, desperately poor and had to be augmented by whatever I could pick up on the way to the restaurant that night.
This was one word - "sweetcorn" - which seemed to be on offer at the local supermarket.
But the rest of the plan worked really well. Every dish we ordered came covered, mysteriously, in sweetcorn, which was enough to persuade my unknowing friend that Zilina was some kind of weird sweetcorn-obsessed town and, as he didn't really like sweetcorn, we'd best leave.
The next morning we were on the first train to Budapest, which allowed us to get into a bar about two minutes prior to kick-off.
Two minutes and thirty-eight seconds later, when Cureton latched onto a terrible play back to the keeper from Sodje and scored the first goal of his hattrick, this was very clearly the right decision! We'll be back with further Southend Stories soon, including speaking to some of the U's players that have made derby day a memorable one for Colchester United fans. In the meantime, grab your tickets via the link below - they're selling VERY quickly!
I feel fine confessing this now, as my friend doesn't attend football games so it's really unlikely he'll see this...
But the rest of the plan worked really well. Every dish we ordered came covered, mysteriously, in sweetcorn, which was enough to persuade my unknowing friend that Zilina was some kind of weird sweetcorn-obsessed town and, as he didn't really like sweetcorn, we'd best leave.
The next morning we were on the first train to Budapest, which allowed us to get into a bar about two minutes prior to kick-off.
Two minutes and thirty-eight seconds later, when Cureton latched onto a terrible play back to the keeper from Sodje and scored the first goal of his hattrick, this was very clearly the right decision! We'll be back with further Southend Stories soon, including speaking to some of the U's players that have made derby day a memorable one for Colchester United fans. In the meantime, grab your tickets via the link below - they're selling VERY quickly!
I feel fine confessing this now, as my friend doesn't attend football games so it's really unlikely he'll see this...