COLCHESTER United fans are playing an important role in today celebrating the 50th anniversary of the club's famous FA Cup giant killing of high-flying Leeds United, writes JON LONGMAN.

Malcolm Cole has teamed up with fellow Colchester United Supporters’ Association member Keith Blaxall to create a badge to mark the U’s 3-2 historic win as well as assisting chairman Jon Burns with the production of a special anniversary edition of the CUSA newsletter.

Football badge collecting is an increasingly popular hobby and the CUSA committee decided to produce a badge to swell collections.

Cole said: “The badge is part of CUSA’s marking of the anniversary of Colchester United’s headline-grabbing victory.

“The badge was something that I thought would be of interest and so it has proven.

“The research was a collaboration between Keith and myself.

“It was critical to get the official club badges produced on our badge exactly as they were in 1971.”

The increase in popularity of badges, with Premier League and many Football League clubs producing a special badge for every game, meant that arranging the production of a one-off badge was a challenge.

Cole said: “I contacted three suppliers with the information and asked for designs, prices and a deadline for delivery.

“One supplier couldn’t meet the deadline and another one came up with a design but then stated it was not able to meet the deadline!

“The third one came up with a better design, agreed to deliver them in time and actually sent them a fortnight early.”

In the meantime, the CUSA team put out a plea for members’ recollections of the fifth round tie.

Cole said: “Back in December, we sent an email to CUSA members asking for recollections and memories, not just of the match but the build up and aftermath.

“We told members that the memories they submitted would be edited by chairman Jon Burns into a special version of our newsletter.”

The postbag bulged as members were eager to share their memories of the greatest victory in the U’s history.

Cole added: “Much to my surprise, we had plenty of contributions, photos and scans.

“This is all being collated at the moment by Jon in preparation to be sent out, hopefully this week.

“U’s fan Michael Middleton supplied a selection of press photos, many of them not seen before and Keith [father of U’s club photographer Richard] contributed scans of newspapers, both local and national.”

The CUSA badge and newsletter will swell the vast amount of sporting memorabilia linked with the greatest day in the U’s history.