Steve Whitton wants his Colchester United squad to don their new millennium celebration hats tomorrow to end the season as they started the New Year.

It was against Blackpool, Saturday's relegation haunted visitors, that Whitton and the U's launched a millennium programme that saw them soar up the Division Two table with four wins and a draw from their six-match January programme.

"There are still six games left and we've got a lot to do before our Second Division status is mathematically safe," said Whitton today (Friday).

"We started our good run at Blackpool with a draw at Bloomfield Road over the New Year and it would be great if we could launch an unbeaten run until the end of the season against them at Layer Road tomorrow.

"I want us to end the season as we started the year."

Whitton's bottom line is another six points out of the 18 remaining and he said:" If we can't achieve that then we don't deserve to be playing Second Division football next season."

But he is also well aware that Blackpool, currently fighting for their lives in second from bottom position, will be no pushover. He said: "They've got to come here and beat us tomorrow. There's no more half measures for them.

"They've got to win matches and win them quickly to stand any chance of staying up and that could work in our favour.

"We are two points better off than we were at the same time last season, but I won't be happy until we are safe and have won the six points that will take us past the 52-point mark that we ended with last year."

Loan signing Barry Ferguson will make his League debut tomorrow in place of central defender Efe Sodje, who is away on World Cup duty for Nigeria.

And fit again defender Joe Dunne will also start in a game where in-form striker Tony Lock will be looking to score in his third successive match.

U's youth team are in action at Cambridge United tomorrow morning, kick-off 11am.

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