Dick signed for us in December 1945 having previously played for us as a "guest" player during World War Two. I believe he orginated from Leicester City. He played for us for several seasons and was a very reliable keeper without being really spectacular.He then managed us and was the driving force in the sixties when we,in the third division, beat Notts Forest,in the second division, 3 - 1 in the FA Cup at Selhurst .I beieve he fell foul of the fans because of the transfer of certain of our better players including Holton and Arthur Waite fired him . I remember at the time being very upset with Mr.Waite because while Dick was laid up with back trouble he got the chop. He then went on to manage Colchester for a while. Does anyone have any more info on Dick and what eventually happened to him?

The last I heard he was in a nursing home in Colchester and our old player Brian Wood used to visit him a lot. That was 2/3 years ago now.

He introduced the "Numbers Game" - we'd arrive at an away game and he would throw the wrong shirts at players, so for instance Cliff Holton would wear 3, Bert Howe would be 7 and Eddie Werge 5. That was intended to confuse the opposition, I'm not sure how well it worked but we did get promotion under him in 63-4 so maybe it had some success.

There are some amusing stories from those days, one was at an away game up North he had the 11 players in the changing room at about 2:45 and said that Bill Fuller would be playing left back. Only problem was that Bill Fuller was sitting in the stand on the other side of the ground. So a runner set off and got him and we started with 10 men and Fuller came on after about 5 mins.

Holton was given away to Orient and replaced by England international Derek Kevan for a then club record fee of £20000. (This was 1965). Sadly Kevan was about 5 years past his best and unfit. Some would say he was a joke. I wouldn't be that rude as he's a nice bloke and had been a very good player, once. Just not for us. But yes, that and a few other odd decisions finished Dick and he was sacked.

Zaha, Williams, Murray, Ambrose, Scannell.

A 5-man forward line who scored 3 goals in 10 minutes on 27th September 2011 at .......................