COLCHESTER United chairman Robbie Cowling has thanked fans for their 'loyal support' after revealing their one-off shirt for the Essex derby.

The U's will wear a unique blue and white striped shirt for their crunch game with Southend United at the JobServe Community Stadium, next Tuesday.

Both clubs are battling against the drop in League Two and are in desperate need of points, to remain in the Football League.

Replicas of the one-off special shirts which no amount of money can buy will only be available to fans who have Loyal Supporter tokens.

The U's introduced their Loyal Supporter Scheme - where every single purchase of an iFollow Match Pass or Match Permit gave the supporter a token - at the start of this season.

The scheme was introduced to reward fans for their support during the pandemic.

It will continue past the current campaign, with tokens awarded in future seasons for demonstrations of fan loyalty.

With each Match Pass and Match Permit bought, Colchester supporters were given a vote on which special one-off kit the U's would wear for the Southend home game, from three choices available.

The actual shirts worn by the U's squad members will be won via a lottery draw, where each token provides the token holder with a lottery ticket.

Cowling told www.cu-fc.com: “I’m really pleased to see the Loyal Supporter merchandise being made available to those fans that have shown their amazing support to the club during this extremely difficult season.

“I appreciate that the pandemic has impacted some of you more than others and many very loyal supporters have not been in a position to buy match permits or watch all of the games on iFollow.

“However, even if you earned just a few tokens then that support has been appreciated and I hope you like the products we have chosen to show that appreciation for your loyal support.”

Loyal Supporter tokens can now be used to pick up some exclusive U's merchandise available now and can be redeemed via supporters' account on ColUTickets.com.