What a cracking advert for Division Two football these two old rivals produced.

This floodlit thriller had everything - especially the First half.

Blood and thunder, incident and goals - two for each side.

End-to-end attacking play and exciting adventurous football that must surely soon bring the missing Layer Road thousands flooding back.

A lot of muddy water has flowed under the Adams Park and Layer Road bridges over the years.

But there has surely never been a greater quality encounter between the two teams than this.

U's boss Steve Whitton fielded the same line-up that saw-off Cambridge so convincingly three days earlier, while Wanderers chief Lawrie Sanchez made just one change - Richard Walker for the injured Jermaine McSporran - to the team that won by the only goal at Bristol City.

Find out more about Colchester United FC For the opening 12 minutes it began to look as though the best Layer Road crowd of the season - 5,186 - were about to witness a similar scoreline to the 0-0 draw in the corresponding game a season earlier.

But as one wag quipped in the Press box: "Goals change matches" and Colchester's golden oldie Micky Stockwell duly launched the fireworks 60 seconds later.

And what an explosive 60 seconds it turned out to be!

Wycombe's Mark Rogers could only clear the ball as far as Stockwell who lost no time in rifling a 12-yard drive into the roof of the net to give Colchester the lead.

The minute had still not ticked over before the visitors hit back to draw level.

In a lightning move upfield, Steve Brown made the most of Karl Duguid's hesitation before flashing a shot across the face of the U's goal where the unfortunate Gavin Johnson could to do nothing more than help the ball into his own net.

Stockwell's goal was his third of the season and his first since scoring against First Division Portsmouth in the Worthington Cup in mid-August.

The goals sparked off a spell of frantic action and only a goal-line clearance two minutes later by U's leading scorer Scott McGleish, back helping out his defence, prevented Dannie Bulman from shooting the visitors ahead.

Big Andy Rammell was off target with another effort as Wycombe enjoyed a good spell of pressure.

But just when it was looking as if they were going to get the better of their Essex hosts, a swift five-man move upfield in the 27th minute ended with keeper Martin Taylor superbly tipping over a brilliant Kemal Izzet header.

From the resulting corner Wanderers failed to deal with Gavin Johnson's deep cross into the six-yard box and goal-poacher Kevin Rapley stole in to touch the ball past keeper Taylor.

Rapley's goal, his seventh of the season, spurred a Colchester spell of domination and he, Thomas Pinault and Izzet all threatened more danger.

Wycombe were not done yet, however, and as the half-time whistle beckoned Rammell was just off target with a header and home keeper Andy Woodman somehow saved a Brown drive with his legs.

Two minutes into injury time the U's habit of conceding goals either side of the interval struck again as Darren Currie, a £200,000 summer signing from Barnet, cashed in on a misplaced ball from Rapley to hammer in a shock equaliser with a terrific shot out of the blue from fully 25 yards.

The second half had its moments, too, with Rapley, Scott McGleish and Izzet all going close for Colchester, while Rammell had a header cleared off the line by Gavin Johnson and Woodman pulled off another flying save to deny Brown.

It all left Wycombe boss Lawrie Sanchez a happy man as his team stretched their unbeaten run to eight matches.

He said: "A lot has gone on between these two clubs in the past, but I hope the fans realise we are both looking to establish ourselves as Second Division teams.

"We want to be the best club in the Thames Valley and I'm sure Colchester are looking to do the same in Essex."

It's Rapley, believe it or not - U's striker Kevin Rapley prods home the second goal against Wycombe Wanderers at Layer Road.

Picture: STEVE BRADING

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.