With their Cambridge Road ground required for building work and the emergence of Colchester Crown, a new team to the area, it was feared that Town would fold but funds were found to prepare a new pitch for 1902–03 at Reed Hall.
During the 1947–48 season, Colchester United had a magnificent run in the FA Cup, consisting of a 3–2 victory against neighbours Chelmsford City in the Fourth qualifying round, followed by a win over Banbury Spencer by a slim 2–1 margin.
Ironically it was First Division Huddersfield, the club that had inspired United's own team strip, who were next to be put to the sword, and a fourth round win over Bradford Park Avenue drew Colchester against Blackpool, where they bowed out in a 5–0 defeat.
Expectations of another great FA Cup run for the 1948–49 season fuelled the imagination and a record Layer Road crowd of 19,072 gathered for the first-round tie with Reading on 27 November 1948.
On 3 June 1950, Colchester United were elected to the Football League with an enviable Supporters Club membership of over 16,000 and an average gate of 8,500 – an amazing achievement when, because of the War, they had only been in competition for seven full seasons.
He signed Percy Ames who would have an incredible run of appearances in United's goal, and then Fenton gained a reputation for spotting players in Scottish Junior football with the acquisition of John Fowler, Sammy McLeod and Bobby Hill.
Colchester did enjoy some early season success when in the inaugural League Cup competition they comprehensively defeated First Division Newcastle 4–1 at Layer Road in front of 9,130 before bowing out to Southampton in Round Two.
Nobody gave the U's a chance but they raced into a 3–0 lead, in front of a 16,000 Layer Road crowd, with goals from Crawford (2) and Dave Simmons before Leeds generated something of a comeback to finally lose 3–2.
Colchester had another cup run, and after disposing of Oxford, with a Bobby Gough hat trick, defeating Leatherhead with a 4–0 replay win and overcoming tricky away ties at Darlington and Newport, the U's welcomed Manchester United to Layer Road.
Tracking the leaders for most of the season, with ten away wins to boot, United succumbed to successive defeats by Blackpool, Blackburn and Reading, and with injuries to Steve Foley and Bobby Gough, the goalscoring was left to Lee who returned 18 League and Cup strikes.
Caretaker Steve Foley disposed of Brown's misfits introducing his own youth team players Gary Bennett, Mark Radford and Scott Daniels.
A week later 32,254 roared United, in their first-ever Wembley appearance, to a famous non-League double gaining revenge over Witton Albion with Masters, McGavin and Nicky Smith scoring in a 3–1 win.
McGavin moved to Birmingham for £150,000 in January with no funds made available, taking a consortium of local businessmen to raise £10,000 to buy Steve Whitton on deadline day to fill the gap.
Wignall resigned Tony Adcock and the loan signing of Scott McGleish rejuvenated United's season and the U's just needed to beat Doncaster in their last fixture to reach the play-offs.
A bargain £150,000 took him to Charlton and there was early League Cup cheer when U's turned a 3–2 deficit with a 3–1 victory at First Division West Bromwich Albion – all the more noteworthy as striker Whitton played the entire second half in goal.
Paul Buckle scored Colchester's first ever Golden Goal against Millwall in the Auto Windscreen Shield and wins over Brentford and Northampton set up a Southern Final with Peterborough.
Barnet held a 1–0 lead at Layer Road, but a brace from David Gregory, the second in extra time, turned the tie in U's favour and earned a third trip to Wembley in six years.
[8] Within two weeks of the 1999–2000 season, manager Wadsworth declared that, living in Pontefract, Colchester was too far south to drive – then, directly after a League Cup tie at Selhurst Park, joined Crystal Palace.
The virtuoso performance by the youngster from Kinshasa persuaded Newcastle boss Bobby Robson to part with a staggering £2.25m in September 2000, and the deal secured the medium term future of the club.
Whitton was unable to bolster his squad to push on quicker and after losing to Conference side Chester in the FA Cup at Layer Road and seven games without a win he left by mutual consent in January 2003.
Colchester didn't disappoint winning the League Cup tie 2–1 to earn a trip to another Premiership side in Southampton, where United scared their lofty opponents before bowing out 3–2.
Ironically United's first ever professional match in 1937 was in the Somerset town and they nervously held onto a 0–0 draw to gain promotion to The Coca-Cola Championship – three points behind Essex neighbours Southend.
Reading paid a new record £2.5m for England U20s international Greg Halford, but the loss did not affect United too much as they continued to take playing against the likes of Leeds, Sunderland and Birmingham in their stride.
Fans favourite Karl Duguid left in the summer to pursue Championship football with Plymouth and Kevin Lisbie joined neighbours Ipswich for a reported £650,000 fee.
On 18 November 2008 the Stadium was rewarded with its first-ever international match when a Henri Lansbury goal gave England Under-19's a 1–0 win over their German counterparts in front of a record crowd of 9,692.
In came David Fox, Ashley Vincent, Alan Maybury, Lee Beevers, Ben Williams and Magnus Okonghuae all on permanent deals with Mark Yeates, leading scorer in that first WHCS season, joining Middlesbrough for a reported £350,000, Chris Coyne leaving for Australia, Scott Vernon being touted as a transfer makeweight and John White, Jamie Guy, Matt Lockwood, Phil Ifil, Matt Heath and Johnnie Jackson feeling the backlash.
Lambert saved his best transfer news until three days before the season opener at Norwich when he secured U's old boy Kevin Lisbie on a season-long loan after the striker refused to move to within 30 minutes of Ipswich as demanded by Town manager Roy Keane.
A week later U's confirmed top spot in League One with a 2–1 win over Yeovil but amazingly Norwich contacted Robbie Cowling after the game wanting to appoint Lambert as their new manager following their sacking of 7–1 fall-guy Bryan Gunn.
He signed John-Joe O'Toole, Kayode Odejayi and Danny Batth on loan with the first named pair agreeing to join permanently ahead of the January transfer window.
[19] On 26 November 2015, Colchester manager Tony Humes was sacked following a run of one win in nine matches, with Richard Hall and John McGreal placed in temporary charge of the club.