The last time Colchester and Swindon came face to face at the County Ground the Wiltshire club comfortably brushed the U's aside on the way to promotion and the old Fourth Division championship.

That was way back in the last century and when the recently relegated Robins - strongly tipped to make a speedy return to the First Division - met the U's head on again in Saturday's sun drenched Division Two opener, talk of promotion and championships was very much in the air again.

But if anyone thought Steve Whitton's current Layer Road men were going to be rolled over as tasty early season fodder in Swindon's promotion mill, they were quickly made to think again.

Whitton's boys were brilliant and if promotion is a right word to use on the first day of the season, on this performance it could be they who are threatening to grab the big prize, not Swindon, next May.

Much has been said about Colin Todd's highly talented, new look County Ground squad, boasting such colourful characters as the free scoring Giuliano Grazioli, quicksilver striker Gary Alexander - a £300,000 signing from West Ham - and the aptly named grease-lightning Aussie midfielder Danny Invincibile.

The plain fact is they were outshone by U's "Golden Oldies" Jason Dozzell and Micky Stockwell - making his debut - defensive new boys Simon Clark and Alan White, plus goalkeeper Simon Brown and the enigmatic unique treasure Lomana Tresor Lua Lua.

Former Spurs, Ipswich and England Under-21 star Dozzell was a revelation in midfield; Stockwell, Clark and White were outstanding alongside him; Brown was magnificent in goal, while Lua Lua was involved in almost every move that spelled danger to the Swindon goal.

In fact everyone of the U's players was a hero on a sweltering hot day more suited to cricket, or the beach.

Both managers will doubtless claim their team had chances to have won the match.

The game was certainly full of exciting incident, goalmouth action and end to end football. It was one of the most entertaining goalless draws I have ever witnessed.

Swindon had a goal ruled out for a foul within 70 seconds of the kick-off and both sides went on to rattle the woodwork.

U's boss Whitton sprung a major surprise before the match by only using last season's top scorer and runaway player of the year Steve McGavin on the subs bench.

And before the first two minutes Alexander - a target of Whitton's earlier in the summer - had a headed goal wiped out by referee Steve Dunn for a foul.

Lua Lua responded with a dangerous, crossfield, jinking run, while the lively Karl Duguid forced a fine full length save out of Town's former Peterborough keeper Bart Griemink.

Invincibile then set the place alight with a penetrating run from deep inside his own half and on 14 minutes the U's enjoyed another let-off as Grazioli thundered a powerful header against the underside of the bar with Brown beaten following a Keith O'Halloran free-kick for a late tackle by Aaron Skelton.

Lua Lua, meanwhile, was a constant threat and as the U's grabbed control White just failed to get his head on a Skelton free kick while only a fantastic one-handed save by Brown prevented Invincible from opening the scoring deep into first half injury time.

Swindon had two lucky let offs soon after the break as Lua Lua cut infield before striking the outside of Griemink's left hand post with a rasping right foot shot, closely followed by a close call from Stockwell that whistled inches wide of the same post.

Big Dutch keeper Griemink was lucky to escape a red card on the hour when he charged off his line and bowled Duguid over, while Lua Lua, who had come in for some tough treatment from the opposition, survived with a yellow after deliberately aiming a kick at a Swindon defender.

McGavin, Thomas Pinault and Tony Lock were all introduced as late second half subs, but only a great 77th minute full-length save by Brown, to thwart Alexander, kept the U's goal intact, while both McGavin and Lua Lua had goalbound shots blocked on the line.

Brown excelled again with another tremendous acrobatic save to keep out a O'Halloran shot three minutes into time added on.

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