Colchester boss Steve Whitton expressed his disappointment at not winning this drama-packed, top half of the table clash with high-scoring Tranmere.

But as goalless draws go, the incident-packed Prenton Park clash was truly exciting and on paper a point looks pretty good - despite the fact that a wicked foul by Rovers' Graham Allen on Joe Keith reduced the home side to ten men early in the second half.

The U's had goalkeeper and man-of-the-match Simon Brown to thank for keeping the in-form and high-scoring Birkenhead raiders at bay.

Although every one of his defensive team-mates - Alan White, Scott Fitzgerald, Karl Duguid, Joe Keith and skipper Simon Clark - more than played their part.

Brown, making his first League appearance since the 2-0 home defeat against Northampton in November 2000 - 57 games ago - pulled out a string of thrilling saves to keep the U's in the game as the ten-man Rovers enjoyed a sudden purple patch just before the end of the game.

Former Spurs keeper Brown had already set the trend with a fantastic save to thwart a point-blank effort from Wayne Allison just past the hour.

Brown followed suit with another great shut-out in the 80th minute, diving to his right to keep out a goal-bound Jason Price shot from close range.

If those two saves were great then his next one to deny Price five minutes later was even better.

Price made ground along the right flank before cutting into the U's penalty box. When his cross took a wicked deflection off a defender, the wrong-footed Brown somehow changed direction in mid-air to acrobatically turn away the former Brentford midfielder's goal-bound effort by the foot of his near post.

There was even more drama to follow from the resulting corner-kick seconds later.

Substitute Dean Morgan cleared a Clint Hill effort off the line, followed by another crucial Brown block to deny Allison from the rebound.

And flinging himself to his right again, the U's keeper brilliantly smothered another fierce Price effort after a dreadful mistake from White had let in Jason Koumas to set-up the opening two minutes from full-time.

Two minutes earlier the impressive Morgan, who had only been on the pitch nine minutes, came within an ace of winning the match for the U's with a thunderbolt drive that was superbly fisted away by home keeper John Achterberg by his right hand post.

Only one point separated the two teams in the Second Division's top 12 going into the match and U's boss Whitton sprung a surprise by ringing the changes, Brown, Keith and Fitzgerald coming into the side for Andy Woodman, Ross Johnson and Thomas Pinault.

The opening half proved a very cat and mouse affair with the U's rearguard, magnificently supported by some fine defensive work from Scott McGleish and Kemal Izzet, dealing admirably with Rovers predictable cut and thrust tactics.

Although exciting, neither side carved out a decent first-half opening, but the second period was only eight minutes old when the game suddenly errupted into explosive controversy with the sending-off of home defender Allen.

Joe Keith, who had caused havoc amid the home team's defence every time he pushed forward, was homing into the penalty box again when Allen unashamedly chopped him down, leaving referee Mike Pike little option but to brandish the red card.

This stirred the home team and their fans into action and although the U's created a number of half-chances it was thanks to the heroics of Brown they recorded their first goalless League draw since the 0-0 stalemate with Wycombe Wanderers midway through last season.

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Published Monday January 14, 2002