A WEEKEND without Colchester United playing was a very strange feeling - one which may be repeated soon with the next round of the FA Cup coming up at the end of November.

Sadly, we won't be taking part but that’s not the cup we have our sights set on and tickets for the upcoming Manchester United Carabao Cup quarter-final go on sale this week.

The numbers allocated will hopefully mean that all who want to go will be able to see this momentous occasion.

That said, it's funny how 9,000-odd will be there on a Wednesday night, yet only 2,500 to 3,000 go on a Saturday to a home game?

No matter what, it promises to be a night to remember and one that will live long in our footballing minds, no matter what the score.

Having no club football this weekend enabled me to sit back and look at the wider goings on.

I was saddened and shocked with the news from the Tranmere game of homophobic abuse reportedly directed at Wycombe’s Ryan Allsop.

It's getting to be a joke now and not in the funny sense but in the 'what's wrong with people' sense.

Football is a passionate that brings us all together and no matter what race, sex, colour etc you are, you should have the right to enjoy it and take part.

I’d like to bet that if the people making these abusive comments were suddenly faced with a life or death situation and a homosexual or coloured person was their only saviour they could look past it straight away, so why can they not do it at the grounds?

It's a big problem, getting bigger, and one we should all join together to stamp out ASAP.

Without the U’s playing, my thoughts and interest turned to the internationals and the England games, in particular.

We have blown the group apart and have the best goalscoring ratio in Europe at the moment.

However, I do worry that we haven’t actually proved ourselves against the very best.

This we need to do in the warm-up games, in order to go into what is effectively a home tournament at Euro 2020.

On the England front, Harry Kane has become the first play ever to score in all eight group games.

Fair play. It's clear that if he carries on he will top the all-time scoring charts.

However, there is one thing he has done that really grinds my gears.

At the home game versus Kosovo, Jadon Sancho had already scored twice (his fist goals for England) and we won a penalty.

With the game already won, Kane should have stepped aside and given him the chance to take it and score his hat-trick.

For a young player, that would have been a massive night.

Instead, Kane took it and missed.

I know it may sound petty but I feel it should be an unwritten rule in football, that anyone on a hat-trick should be given the penalty to allow them the chance.

It’s not like Harry won't have the chance to add to his total in later games.

Right, that’s my rant over.

Sorry it's been a different focus this week but normal service will be resumed next week.

Good luck to all getting their Man U tickets and let's travel to Cheltenham in high spirits and get behind the lads for the three points.