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Going into the final match of the 2014/15 season we were in 22nd position in the table on 49 points. Leyton Orient were one point behind on 48 points with a better goal difference. Crawley were point ahead along with Notts County. Crawley’s goal difference was worse than ours but Notts County’s better by four. Crewe were in 19th on 52 points but with a worse goal difference than everyone below them apart from bottom of the table Yeovil. Coventry were also on 52 points but with a better goal difference than most but could still be relegated if they lost and results went against them.
League One table after close of play on 02 May 2015
Col U had shown an uptick in form in April, starting with two wins over the Easter weekend but back to back defeats away against Coventry (1-0) and Chesterfield (6-0) left the team on the brink. A 2-2 draw against Scunthorpe followed where the U’s had fought back from 1-0 down with less than 10 minutes remaining to lead 2-1 before conceding in stoppage time. There was more late drama the following weekend where two goals in the last 10 minutes gave the U’s a vital 3-2 win away at Fleetwood. A Tuesday night home game versus Swindon was next and despite taking a first minute lead and having opportunities to win the game a 1-1 draw was the result which left the U’s needing a minor miracle to pull off the great escape from relegation to League Two. The final day fixtures for the teams who could still get relegated were as follows:
Colchester Utd V Preston North End Crawley Town V Coventry City Crewe Alexandra V Bradford City Gillingham V Notts County
Firstly we had to beat Preston at home who needed to better MK’s result for automatic promotion. We also needed for Crewe to get beaten and either Crawley or Notts County not to win. If Crewe managed even a point then a Crawley or Notts County win would send us down. Preston would come into the match on an 18 game unbeaten run with their last league defeat coming in January and their last defeat of any description was in February against Man United in the FA Cup where Preston had actually led in the second half of that game. It was a very tight game with chances few and far between and despite Chris Porter missing a second half penalty the U’s would beat Preston 1-0 thanks to a well taken goal by George Moncur in the 82nd minute. I won’t go into too much detail about the match itself but I feel we can never talk about this game without mentioning Tom Eastman’s incredible sliding tackle to deny Jermaine Beckford. It was timed to perfection and if we’d fallen behind it would’ve been a long, long way back. We’d done our bit by winning but we still needed at least two other results to go our way to be saved from relegation.
Colchester Utd 1-0 Preston North End Crawley Town 1-2 Coventry City Crewe Alexandra 0-1 Bradford City Gillingham 3-1 Notts County
In somewhat miraculous fashion not just two results went our way but all three did with Crewe, Notts County and Crawley all losing meaning that Notts County and Crawley were relegated along with Leyton Orient and Yeovil. Looking at those results in a bit more depth:
- Crewe lost 1-0 at home to Bradford with the goal being scored by former Col U loanee Billy Clarke and former U’s keeper Ben Williams keeping a clean sheet.
- Crawley lost 2-1 at home despite taking the lead early in the second half. The winner came in the stoppage time and was scored by a young James Maddison with the assist coming from a certain Frank Nouble.
- Notts County lost 3-1 away at Gillingham. County had taken the lead just after the hour mark but Gillingham hit back with goals in the 88th, 93rd and 95th minutes. The second goal was scored by Brennan Dickenson and the third goal by Luke Norris. Another future U’s player, Doug Loft also played the for Gillingham that day. Not really related but the Gillingham goalkeeper back in the 2014/15 season has featured nearly 40 times for Gillingham in the 2024/25 season.
League One end of season table for 2014-15 season
Preston would go on to win the Play-Offs by winning their next three matches without conceding a goal and the only downer on that memorable day was helping MK get promoted.
We are definitely up against it tomorrow but it is the 10 year anniversary and maybe, just maybe, something magical just might happen again.
Remembering the Preston game... on 22:19 - May 2 by wessex_exile
Magnificent stuff RS - just watched all of the YouTube links, including the full match video.
Thanks wessex, I normally just deal in stats and data so was nice to add a bit more colour to something but boy did it take a lot longer than I had anticipated. I now have even more respect for all your previews and other bits over the years.
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