A COLCHESTER United legend’s FA Trophy winner’s medal has a new home in a local pub – after being snapped up at auction by regulars.

Former U’s player and manager Roy McDonough auctioned his 1992 winner’s medal during a special match to raise money for former Us youth team and Halstead Town player Shaun Bailey.

Rob Jeckells, Jeff Whitehead, Bernie Owens, Oly Bryan, Martin Stock and Hayley Stock, on behalf of her late grandfather George Cunliffe, bid £1,200.

The medal now has pride of place in the bar of the Victoria Inn Pub, in Colchester’s North Station Road.

Mr Jeckells, from Colchester, said he and his pals wanted to see the medal on display in a place regularly visited by Colchester United fans and friends of Mr Bailey.

He added: “We wanted the mounting of the medal to be a part of the good times the club has experienced. It was for a really great cause. This is the pub where loads of Colchester fans come to drink and we wanted everyone to be able to enjoy the medal.

“It meant a lot to Shaun and his family.”

Pub landlord Andy Pilgrim said he was really pleased to have been asked to give the medal a home.

He said: “The guys were very excited to have the medal here.

“It was a momentous time in club history and it was a fantastic achievement for us to get the medal.

“They mounted it really nicely with some information about Roy and the reason why it was here. It’s something nice for the fans to look at, but it’s even better it was done for a charitable reason.”

Mr Bailey, a former U’s youth team player and manager of Halstead Town, was diagnosed with a brain tumour earlier this year. He moved to the US to become a football coach but his inoperable tumour forced him to give up his career.

A charity match between Halstead Town and former U’s players was held earlier this month to raise money for him.

“BIG Roy” McDonough said he couldn’t think of a better place for his medal to end up.

McDonough played 249 times for the U’s in the Eighties and Nineties, scoring 80 goals.

He was player-manager between 1991 and 1994, leading them to promotion and leading them out at Wembley for their 3-1 FA Trophy win over Witton Albion.

The former player said: “All Col U fans can see the medal now and share what was a great and memorable occasion for the club.

“History was made by my troops, Colchester United's class of 92 and I helped Jeff Whitehead, one of the guys who bought the medal, write his book, a Season to Remember.

“Hats off, too, to the Victoria pub also for displaying the medal. With the pictures and the framing, it looks pure class. One final thought has to be for Shaun Bailey and his charity, because without that, the medal would still be in my kitchen cupboard.

“I’d been waiting for a worthy cause and this was perfect.

“Shaun is a truly magnificent and very brave guy of whom I have fond memories. I was truly honoured to play and donate the medal for the man.”