A FOOTBALL fanatic spent hours painstakingly creating a miniature replica of a cherished stand.

Dedicated Colchester United fan James Sakal wanted to have a lasting reminder of the club's former ground at Layer Road which was demolished in 2012 to make way for homes.

The U's moved to their current home at the Weston Homes Community Stadium in 2008.

So James, 31, of Marks Tey, created the model of the Barside stand, 50 times smaller than the original.

He said: "I do art as a hobby and paintings and so on but have never done anything like that.

"I am a football fanatic as well. I used to go to Layer Road with my dad as a kid and was a season ticket holder with him for a few years before it was demolished.

"I couldn't go there and measure it up and scale it down because it wasn't there anymore.

"I trawled the internet and had my own photos of it and from that I interpreted it and pretty much guessed the dimensions from photos at different angles and put it together that way, and worked with what I had.”

Perfectionist James originally planned to make the entire ground.

But after embarking on the project he soon realised what a mammoth task he’d taken on and settled for making the stand, which gained a reputation for attracting Col U’s more vociferous fans.

However, he’s not ruled out creating the rest of the ground in the future.

The stand, measuring around a metre long and 20 centimetres wide, took 100 hours, over the course of a month, to come to fruition.

James forked out about £100 for the materials which included balsa wood, brass mesh, acrylic paints, glue and even glo-sticks to create the stand's crash barriers.

Building from the base up, James the model even includes replica signage and Gazette posters.

Sand was mixed with some of the paint to make the texture of the stand more like concrete.

The stand is even fitted with LED lights.

James, who is also a talented pianist, said: “The aim I had in mind was if it could be displayed somewhere like the new stadium so a new generation can see it. It would be great if young people like that could see the model."

James started the project before he began his current Masters degree in Maths at Essex University.

He said he would also consider putting the stand up for charity auction.

The Layer Road ground was home to the U’s from 1937.

James has made a video showing the stand.