Tomorrow sees the last Colchester United league match played at their Layer Road ground. The Gazette spoke to diehard U's fans, plus shops and residents who neighbour Layer Road to find out what the end of the ground means to them.

Little did Geoffrey Hurst know at the time the consequences of going to watch Colchester United with his brother back in 1938.

It sparked a passion for the beautiful game - and, more importantly, Colchester United - which has lasted 70 years.

"After that match I used to go whenever I could," said Mr Hurst, who has had a season ticket for more years than he can remember.

Over the years he has made friends with the fellow season ticket holders who sit near him at Layer Road.

"Some shout and are quite mouthy, some are more quiet," he explained.

And him?

"I'm quieter now than I used to be. I'm more subdued these days," said the 79-year-old from Great Bromley.

Like other longstanding fans, Leeds was the highlight of his Layer Road memories, and relegation out of the football league was the low point.

"I felt the bottom had dropped out of my world when that happened," he remembered.

For Mr Hurst, supporting the U's has been a real family affair.

His wife, Beryl, has been to many games, as has his son, Paul, and daughter Glenda, who also sells programmes on match days.

Mr Hurst first took his son to Layer Road when he was three.

They had to get there very early so Paul had a chance of getting to the front and watching the match over the wooden fence.

Mr Hurst's grandson, Sam, also never misses a match when he is home from university.

It is Mr Hurst's health, not the new stadium, which is behind him not renewing his season ticket.

He still wants to watch the U's, but feels he might not be up to going so often.

He can remember talk of the U's new stadium going back to after the Second World War.

"But they had to move," he stressed.

"If they didn't, the club would have folded."

DAVE WON'T MISS THE RUSTY ROOF

It was more bike-and-walk than park-and-ride when Dave Laitt first went to Layer Road with his father nearly 60 years ago.

"The nearby houses used to open their back gardens and you could leave your bike for threepence," he said.

He may be looking forward to the new U's ground, but Mr Laitt will miss the quirkiness of Layer Road.

There's the fake birds in the main stand, for a start, which are meant to deter persistent pigeons.

"And then there is the ball hitting the roof of the stand and rust falling in your hair," he laughed.

"It does have a certain atmosphere all of its own."

He would love to have known what some of the bigger clubs had thought when they turned up at Layer Road.

"They probably thought it was some Sunday League team," he said.

His father had one memory of Layer Road he would rather forget. If he was on a late shift for the Army Fire Service he had to leave the game early, which meant ducking down under the barrier and walking along the side of the pitch to the exit.

"But once he walked right into the linesman who was holding out his flag - and knocked out both his teeth. He was so engrossed in the game he wasn't looking where he was going."

Mr Laitt, 69, played for Colchester United reserves and made the first team at Layer Road once.

"It was a very different surface then," he recalled.

"The groundsmen do a fantastic job now. In those days it was more like a shingle beach."

Good memories of Layer Road include the Leeds match, bad memories include the woefully small crowds when the U's were in the Conference.

"I have very fond memories," stressed Mr Laitt, a retired printer from Prettygate, Colchester.

He plans to get to the ground earlier tomorrow to soak up the atmosphere for the last time. His son Graeson will also be there to decorate the stand in time for kick-off.

It will be the end of an era, but the start of a whole new chapter in the history of the U's.

MAN U OR COL U WAS AN EASY DECISION FOR JOHN

As the Manchester United mug smashed against the wall, John Tweed knew it was the defining moment in his support for Colchester United.

It had taken two throws to break the mug, but it was a gesture to show his allegiance to his local team.

Like many youngsters of his age, Manchester United - with the likes of Bobby Charlton, George Best, Nobby Stiles and Denis Law - was the top team worth supporting, and Mr Tweed had continued to follow their fortunes into adulthood.

But when it came to them beating Colchester United at Layer Road in 1979 in the FA Cup, he knew where his loyalty really lay.

"In that one moment I cut off my allegiance to Man U," explained Mr Tweed.

"I was so jarred off. Back then I used to be a terrible sulker when we lost," he added with a guilty smile, thinking back to the broken mug.

It is one of many memories 57-year-old Mr Tweed, of Lexden, will never forget about Layer Road.

From the first game he watched against Brentford back in the 1968/69 season to tomorrow's game against Stoke City, Mr Tweed has been with the U's through all its ups and downs at Layer Road.

"It will be emotional for me at the last match. I have always stood up to watch football games and will have to get used to sitting down at the new stadium. I shall miss Layer Road."

That said, he knows, like other supporters, that Layer Road is long past its sell-by date, and if the club want to have a realistic chance to get back into the Championship, they need a stadium to suit.

For Mr Tweed, it was hearing the roar of the Layer Road crowd and seeing the floodlights from his Boadicea Way home, which prompted him and a friend to go to a U's match.

He was instantly hooked by the atmosphere.

"I just couldn't wait until the next match," he explained.

He has been a season ticket holder since the mid-1970s, and once held an 18-year record of never missing a U's match, home and away.

Ever since the legendary 3-2 U's victory against Leeds at Layer Road in 1971, there has been talk about the need for a new stadium.

With Layer Road's days numbered for more than 30 years, fans have known that a new home for the U's was always on the horizon.

What was not expected was for it to take so long. But the U's start next season at their new home at Cuckoo Farm in north Colchester.

One of Mr Tweed's best Layer Road memories was the FA Cup fourth round replay in 1971, when the U's beat Rochdale 5-0.

"At the final whistle we knew we were going to play Leeds at home. It was absolutely fantastic."

His worst memory was getting relegated out of the Football League in 1990.

"I know it sounds daft, but I felt as if something had been taken away from me inside," he remembered.

Until he met his wife Lucy - a fellow U's fanatic - Mr Tweed was convinced his passion for football would lead to a bachelor life. Their love of the beautiful game is something they share.

"There can be few people who are as keen as me to go to somewhere like Hartlepool on a freezing cold February day," he laughed.