Curo Curse Shows Loyalty Is One Way

Curo Curse Shows Loyalty Is A One Way Street

Cue pain, devastation and destruction aplenty. Jamie Cureton turned that round ball object with witch he plays his trade from heavy medicine ball into a golden orb on the weekend Colchester met Norwich.

The man this space used to hail as a vigilante, because of his uncanny knack of stealing points from the huge Championship teams for the Col U cause, robbed fans of their dignity, instead. The pleasure-pain equation of the club`s two terms in England`s second tier presented itself not so much in the 5-1 scoreline, more the scorer.

The striker who had fired 23 goals in stripes as Colchester recorded a sublime first season at their highest level was visibly happy to confirm what will probably be a first relegation for the club in just over two decades.

After his first goal on Saturday, Cureton goaded those in the away end at Carrow Road with the mouthed words: “I can`t hear you,” cupping a hand to his ear. This from last season`s top divisional marksman, en rote to bagging his tenth professional hat-trick.

It happened just 19 months after the now Norwich number 10 hit three past Derby County in summer 2006. That day, as the United faithful sung his name to the skies, he rebuffed all vocal praise by shaking his head in shocked delight.

Recall also how the forward confessed he thought Colchester had given him “a last chance” at shooting for stars in professional football, and you`d think he might have shown a little more gratitude. Lest we forget to applaud United for plucking Curo from the obscurity of Swindon reserves.

It`s all selective memory for Curo now that those billboard dreams are a reality once more for him at his beloved City, against whom he refused to celebrate when he scored against them in both fixtures a year ago.

His actions a few days ago did confirm one thing we all knew, though. No, not that Colchetser, the division`s smallest side by a country mile – who nearly made the playoffs less than 365 days ago – are a tinpot team, with “no ambition.”

Cureton showed us that loyalty is apparently only a one way street while trampling all over Colchester United hearts in the process.

Anyway, that is always the trouble with sporting Boomerang Boys who make a living from haunting former employers, as Cureton did so many times during Colchester`s rhapsody in Blue and White in 2006/7.

Invariably, they come back for you in the end.

Irony One In the Ifil

The fact that Colchester United Supporters` Association will ask season ticket holders to select their U`s Player of the Year very soon is irony redefined.

Punters would probably pick any man they deem lest responsible for possibly producing the club`s poorest point yield ever.

Strike from the list of probable winners, then, January addition Phil Ifil. The defender`s contribution includes scoring two own goals, receiving a red card (since rescinded) and giving away a penalty last weekend during his side`s heaviest defeat of the season.

Step forward, instead, Colchester`s Unluckiest Player of the Year.

Russeling Feathers

The mercurial Bob Russell, MP, has said he will tear up his Colchester United season ticket if positive change is not forthcoming in Britain`s oldest town.

Reading his comments, the default response is to sympathise and agree. He is as suspicious as the next person about the motives of owner Robbie Cowling`s investment of millions in the club, he says. That`s understandable, because rich people don`t tend to go all philanthropic just as their financial mussel grows strongest.

Yet, this column could stand on a soapbox and threaten to turn tickets into confetti, and it wouldn`t necessarily make the headlines. In the past, Bob has used his political prowess in the public arena to campaign for the good of the side – particularly when raising his voice over the distinct lack of Supporters` Association bar at the club`s new ground. On the CUSA bar issue he previously admitted: “I don`t mind being the bad guy everyone shouts at over this.”

They`re shouting now, alright, because if several thousand fans follow Russell`s proposed lead by chucking their chequebook at some other form of non-Col U entertainment, Cuckoo Farm will almost certainly become the hollow husk of a stadium he so grimly predicts.

Fine, so Russell is not a sucker of the ‘prizes for all generation`, not someone who will sugar-coat what he sees as a very sour issue. He also worthily objects to the increase in agent fees for U`s players since the change in regime, and seems to fear for the worst.

But, let`s say he actually does shred his season ticket, so consigning himself the doldrums of DIY every Saturday forever more. What then?

Well, whatever he ends up doing, you can be relinquishing his ties with the U`s will not include forgoing the pleasure – perhaps the right, even – of being able to voice his opinion on the side in his monthly column for the My Football Writer webspace.

Nothing wrong with that, per se, except that merely writing away your woes over the Internet seems a poor substitute for being an active, real, follower.