Born in the picturesque Suffolk village of Blythburgh, Colin Flatt was a centre forward who made two appearances for St Albans City in October 1973 at the age of 33.

He was introduced to the club by manager Tommy Coleman as assistant manager earlier that year and stayed on under new manager Tommy Barnett when Coleman was dismissed at the end of December 1973. However, within a month the duo, who had previously played together at Romford, were again going their separate ways as Barnett released his colleague following City’s 3-1 Herts Senior Cup victory at Berkhamsted Town on 19th January 1974.

Flatt’s two appearances came at a time when Coleman cleared out a cluster of players after City had made a poor start to their Isthmian League campaign. At that time, non-league clubs were permitted only two former professional players on permits at a time, and City had to cancel Flatt’s registration when defender Joe Jeffries was granted a permit to become our second permit player.

Colin began his career with stints at Leytonstone, Woodford Town, Wisbech Town (over 160 games, 75 goals) and Cambridge United before moving into the Football League with Leyton Orient in 1965. He made 33 League appearances for Orient (eight goals) before scoring another eight times in 22 games Southend United a year later.

 After leaving Southend he returned to the non-league game and proved to be a popular player with Romford before joining Barnet for the start of the 1971-72 season. In two years at Underhill he scored 21 times in 75 games. He, along with other one-time St Albans players Barrie King and Les Eason, was in the Bees side that faced Stafford Rangers at Wembley in the F.A. Trophy in 1972. A somewhat off-form Barnet went down 3-0 that day in front of a crowd of 24,000. In 1975 he had a brief run as manager of Barnet and, in August of that year as player-manager, pulled on the Amber and Black kit for one final time.

In between leaving St Albans City and returning to Barnet he had short spells with Dunstable and Maidstone United.

Left, an anxious-looking St Albans City bench during our inglorious 1-1 draw with Hampshire League side Brockenhurst in the F.A. Amateur 1st Round on 5th January 1974. We made our final appearance in what was the last season of the much-loved competition a week later with a 2-0 defeat in the replay in the New Forest.

Colin Flatt is to the far right of the photo with Tommy Barnett second left.

Colin Harold Flatt was born in Blythburgh on 30th January 1940 and passed away in Basildon on 7th September 2021.