Colchester United manager Mick Wadsworth was yesterday still waiting to hear if Steve Whitton is ready to become his official right-hand man.

Whitton, who played a big part as player, coach and then assistant manager to former boss Steve Wignall as the U's blazed the trail to Wembley and Division Two during the past four years, has the opportunity to do a similar job alongside Wadsworth.

And the new manager is keen to have the former West Ham, Coventry, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich midfielder-cum-striker alongside him.

Wadsworth said: "Steve hasn't told me yet that he does want the job, but I'm working under the premise that he does."

Wadsworth also described as "nonsense" claims that his new recruits were a bunch of moaners when earning a valuable 1-1 draw at in-form Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

Rovers' player-boss Ian Holloway made the allegations after the U's earned a point thanks to a controversial David Gregory penalty award three minutes from time.

Holloway said: "Colchester were having a go at the referee all through the game. I felt we were hard done by over the penalty.

"We felt Andy Thomson played the ball and the referee thought differently, but I'm more than unhappy that Colchester got away with all that moaning."

Wadsworth said: "That's just nonsense! The lads played with an excellent spirit and although Bristol were the better side to start with if you look at the overall balance of play we could have won the game."

Wadsworth, who watched the game from the stand allowing assistant Steve Whitton to run team affairs one last time, praised the U's fighting spirit which saw them pull level.

"Enthusiasm and spirit take you a long way. We played some nice football on a very difficult pitch. We didn't just boot it, far from it. The balance of play changed as the game went on. It was a very even first half.

"They started better in the second half and missed two great chances. From that point on, our game plan started to wear them down."

Regarding the penalty decision which saw David Gregory felled and then get up to score, Wadsworth said: "It's difficult to say what happened. They were incensed, but that's going to happen every now and then.

"Some will go against us at some stage, it just balances out. The most important issue was the coolness of our penalty taker."

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