IT'S official - Colchester United have been relegated from the Championship.The U's will be playing in League One next season, following Barnsley's shock 3-0 win at promotion candidates Watford last night.

Carl Marston

IT'S official - Colchester United have been relegated from the Championship.

The U's will be playing in League One next season, following Barnsley's shock 3-0 win at promotion candidates Watford last night.

The Tykes were third from bottom before kick-off, on 46 points, but they have now climbed out of the relegation zone and onto 49 points - which is one more than the maximum 48 points that the U's could reach with four wins from their final four fixtures.

A glance at the Championship table would suggest that the U's could still finish above Scunthorpe, Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday.

The Owls are 12 points clear of the U's, and even though they have a vastly superior goal difference, they could still be caught by United.

However, that doesn't taken into account the fact that Sheffield Wednesday (48 points) and Leicester (47) still have to play each other.

Therefore whatever the result of that fixture, to be played at the Walkers Stadium on Saturday, April 26, one of these two clubs will definitely accumulate more than the U's maximum of 48 points.

It is therefore mathematically confirmed that Colchester are relegated, and will begin life in their new Community Stadium as a League One outfit.

For Colchester United skipper, Karl Duguid, this is his first taste of relegation since he graduated from the youth team back in the mid-1990s.

“It feels strange to be relegated without actually playing, but the killer is that Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday have to play each other,” confirmed Duguid.

“I suppose it was coming, and the writing has been on the wall for the last few weeks, but we wanted to keep fighting until there was no chance of us staying up.

“However, we still want to finish the season on a high. Our season might be ruined, but we have a chance to ruin others as well.

“We have got Leicester and Coventry to play in our next two games, and we can put them in more trouble. And we would also like to beat Stoke and mess up their promotion chances.

“We also don't want to finish bottom, so we want to win at Scunthorpe on the final day of the season. That's what we are now aiming for.

“I haven't had many lows in my time at Colchester. We lost at Wembley (Auto Windscreens Shield Final of 1997), but a cup is different to the league.

“I'm already looking forward to next season, and an exciting new era at the new ground,” added Duguid.