Connections: Colchester United and Port Vale
We take a look at players who have played for both sides…
Current squads
The Valiants will come up against former central defender Luke Prosser (above) who is now club captain at Colchester. Prosser came up through the youth ranks at Vale Park to make thirty six senior appearances, scoring once. He was released in 2010 and joined Colchester in 2016. He is now 31 years of age and has over three hundred senior appearances to his name.
Previous years
After Prosser, the most recent player to appear for both teams was Chris Regis (right). The midfielder started his career at Arsenal but had joined Colchester in 2016. He failed to make a first-team appearance and drifted into non-league before being picked up by Vale in 2017. He enjoyed a dream debut as he was signed on the 7th November, named in the starting eleven for a Football League Trophy clash with Crewe that evening and then scored just four minutes into the game. Sadly, that was to be the highlight of his Vale career as he made just one more appearance before being released.
There have been a quartet of recent Port Vale loanees who have also played for Colchester United. The four players are defender Ryan Inniss, striker Rekeil Pyke, winger Olamide Shopido and midfielder Tommy O’Sullivan.
Looking a little further back, former Vale captain Doug Loft had a spell with Colchester as did winger Ashley Vincent and defenders Liam Chilvers and Sam Stockley.