TOWN V COLCHESTER HEAD TO HEAD: Micklewright's goals and Ruddock's giant shorts (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

TOWN V COLCHESTER HEAD TO HEAD: Micklewright's goals and Ruddock's giant shorts

6:00am Tuesday 2nd October 2012 in Sport

SWINDON Town and Colchester United first met at the County Ground in August 1950.

It was only Colchester’s second ever game in league football and they claimed a point in front of more than 15,000 fans thanks to Bob Curry’s goal after William Millar had fired Town in front.

Over a 10-match spell between 1955 and 1974, Swindon made a happy habit of scoring against the U’s on home turf.

The goal spree was started by Andy Micklewright, the inside right signed from Bristol City in the summer of 1955, who bagged two in a 3-1 win the same year.

Micklewright scored five times in three games between the two sides, as Town ran out 4-1 winners in April 1957 and 4-0 victors six months later.

Mike Summerbee scored his first goal for the Robins in the 4-3 thriller at the County Ground in April 1960.

Summerbee would go on to find the net 40 times in more than 200 appearances for Town during his long and distinguished career in Wiltshire, including another against the U’s in a 6-1 thrashing of the Essex outfit three years later.

Despite dominating Colchester for the first 25 years of competition between the teams, Swindon struggled in the 1970s.

The Robins failed to beat their guests on four consecutive occasions, spread over eight years, before Paul Rideout scored his first County Ground brace in a 3-0 victory in 1981.

Rideout netted again the next time Colchester came calling, while Andy Rowland scored in three successive games between the sides in SN1 in the 1980s.

A goalless draw on the first day of the 2000/01 campaign ended a run of six successive Swindon wins in this fixture, while Colchester’s 3-0 rout of their hosts in 2005 was the visitors’ first win in 11 attempts.

The man who needed new shorts, Neil Ruddock, made his only contribution of any real significance when the U’s paid a visit in 2001.

The former Liverpool defender, in Wiltshire as part of Roy Evans’ coaching team, had to have specially-made kit to suit his expanding waistline when he arrived at the County Ground but he made a decent impression with a thunderbolt free-kick in a 1-0 victory.

As we all now know, Swindon fans’ love for Ruddock pretty much ended there.

Since Ruddock’s brief cameo in Wiltshire, Town and Colchester have shared the spoils - the Robins winning three and the U’s two of the last six clashes at the County Ground.

The most recent meeting ended 2-1 in the hosts’ favour, with Thomas Dossevi scoring his only home goal in a red shirt.