Colchester United fan Matt Calmus's views on the U's

It isn't just the fact that Colchester United pictures on BBC were being beamed across 70 countries last Friday, or even that a young U's fan had brought big, bright, eye-catching banners into AFC Sudbury's revamped stadium, playfully reminding Alan Shearer how they'd both between them won zero FA Cups.

It wasn't especially the short 11-mile journey from Essex homes to tub-thumping territory for round one, either, or being given freedom of an almost exclusive right to roam anywhere you liked once inside.

Programme notes apologised for things not running quite as usual but to most visiting U's fans, King's Marsh in fact felt like some sort of footballing heaven.

Nor was it really even passing thoughts that a cup bon voyage is perhaps only just beginning for us all this season, after our triumphant 4-0 victory.

More than 50 years since an almighty upset against then imperious Leeds United gave rise to our oft-told giantkillers fable, it could now be time to write some new, gleaming chapters.

Whatever the incredible feeling was here, exactly, is hard to explain.

Nonetheless, there's no doubting how special this capacity crowd game becomes for both clubs.

It provided cherished smells, sights and sounds under temporary floodlights for an anticipating audience.

To prepare for gathered national exposure and first-time TV coverage so smartly is all credit to AFC.

Amid enjoyable pomp and circumstance, including seeing a bronze bust of artist Thomas Gainsborough wearing Sudbury's iconic yellow and blue scarf nearby, it's easy to forget just how well the U's played under extreme pressure, even from their own supporters.

I spied a small A6-sized anti-management sign which happily never saw daylight, or flashbulb glare.

Five successive falls at this competition's first hurdle clearly took a toll on some.

We watched a top U's team performance when it mattered on a surface that looked smooth but appeared initially to contribute to full-back Ryan Clampin's early injury withdrawal.

Thumbs up - Matt Calmus (right) with fellow U's fan Richard Anderson

To footnote Syl Jasper's expertly-taken goal, which later killed the tie; in a sea of flatcaps, during that joyous moment, I was keen to spot his Dad's more familiar own hat as seen most weeks, simply to tell how elated he'd be watching his son score in the FA Cup.

Leon Osman talking on mic in the studios reckoned cold water showers and an unheated away dressing room would greet our boys, as Sudbury sought every possible playing advantage, obviously hoping to turn this potentially unappealing tie into a right banana skin.

The plastic pitch, tight tunnels and our sketchy record at league entry-level this last half-decade all got ample airtime.

I found myself happily light headed in a freewheeling football nivarna, meanwhile, at the stands.

My guess is that scores of U's fans will return to Sudbury with complete fondness to watch them again in future. Such a buzz.

Friends to the left and right, watching that jazzy robot camera-dolly trail proceedings and trying to dampen murmurings of how we'd no divine right to win, all made things captivating.

Up the U's - Colchester fans Tony and Jovi Benfield at AFC Sudbury

Singing: "PG, for the BBC," to that famed 'one-nil to the Arsenal' tune, also gave those gathered by one giant corner microphone a real belly-laugh. We wondered for how long too you should, or could, reasonably mind your language.

Still consuming the content days afterwards, I'm like a kid at Christmas with that favourite toy; full BBC Radio Essex and Suffolk commentaries are still out now, to delight in as you wish.

Steve Bower on MC mispronouncing the River Stour as "sour," was an amusing aberration in his otherwise excellent reportage, meantime, for television.

"You didn't get your upset!," I found myself gleefully humming, alongside CUSA chair Jon Burns as we idly walked back in a bliss state to our cars.

This week's headline instead: We live to fight another day. What an evening.