COLCHESTER United have taken a major step towards ending one 30-year wait.

And their patient fans, who are looking forward to watching their football at a new stadium from 2007 onwards, will hope another ends tomorrow afternoon.

It will be the Essex club's seventh visit to Huddersfield going back to the 1974-75 campaign - and they have yet to win.

It was in the mid-Seventies that the club began their bid to move away from Layer Road.

The ground had been the scene of two famous FA Cup third-round wins over top-flight opposition - Town in 1948 and Leeds in 1971.

But its cramped setting in the suburbs of the Roman town have made redevelopment difficult.

The site of the proposed new ground is at Cuckoo Farm to the North of Colchester.

And the project has taken a major step forward after the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister decided not to call in the planning application.

That means it needs only the rubber stamp of Colchester Borough Council for building work to start.

Club chief executive Marie Partner said: "This is a huge step forward for us.

"There are still a few hurdles but now we're getting into the fine detail of how the ground will be built, the really big fences have been climbed.

"The ground will have hospitality boxes, catering, a restaurant, bars and other outlets from which we can make valuable revenue which we can't do at Layer Road.

"But the tax payers in Colchester will be getting their money back. We will pay our way."

With the new stadium looking more likely, the pressure is sure to increase for success on the pitch.

Current boss Phil Parkinson's task is to become the first man to take the club up to the second tier of the English senior game.

The closest the club have come was in 1957, just seven years after their election to the old Third Division South.

Under future Millwall manager Benny Fenton, they finished third behind Ipswich and Torquay, missing out on promotion by just one point.

A year later, Colchester made the cut for the newly-formed national Third Division, but have spent the time since shuttling between the two bottom sections, with the exception of seasons 1990-91 and 91-92, when they were in the Conference.

After winning promotion from the then-Division III in 1998 under former Doncaster player Steve Wignall, this is the seventh successive season at this level.

Parkinson, whose predecessors in the job include Jim Smith, Mike Walker, Jock Wallace, Mick Mills, Ian Atkins, George Burley and former Town boss Mick Wadsworth, took over in February 2003.

That season United, helped by a 2-0 home win over Town in one of Parkinson's early games in charge, finished 11th.

Last time around, they were 12th, and they go into tomorrow's match in 14th position after last Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to Hartlepool.

For the record, their first visit to Huddersfield, on November 9, 1974 in the original Division III, ended in a 3-2 defeat, Alan Gowling (penalty), Terry Gray and Terry Dolan netting for Town.

The five games since have finished 0-0 (1974-75), 2-0 (80-81), 1-1 (in the League Cup in 96-97) 2-1 (2001-02) and 1-1 (02-03), when Jon Stead was on target for Town.

TOWN (PROBABLE)

Rachubka, Mirfin, N Clarke, T Clarke, Adams, Brandon, Fowler, Ahmed, Schofield, Booth, Abbott. Subs (from): Senior, Mendes, Holdsworth, McAliskey, Edwards, Brown, Collins.

COLCHESTER (FROM)

Davison, Stockley, White, Chilvers, Hunt, Halford, Danns, Watson, Johnson, Jarvis, Keith, Garcia, Williams, Gerken, Elokobi, Goodfellow, Brown, Baldwin, Bowry.