Jamie Cureton believes his Golden Boot-winning season at Colchester United was one of the finest years of his long career.

The evergreen striker today celebrates the 20th anniversary of his first-ever professional goal, for Norwich City against Chelsea in 1994.

Cureton, 39, can boast plenty of memorable moments, having represented 14 clubs over more than two decades.

He has scored more than 250 goals, in a long playing career that has seen him grace all four divisions.

But Cureton regards the 2006-07 campaign, which saw him hit the net 23 times for Colchester in their inaugural season in the Championship, as one of his best.

“It was a special time - it was one of my best years in football, if not the best,” said Cureton, who was the first U’s striker to score 20 league goals in a season since Tony Adcock managed the feat in the 1984-85 campaign.

“With the size of the club, we were expected to come straight back down that year.

“It was great to play in that team and to have the input that I had was brilliant.

“I’d had three or four pretty poor years before I came to Colchester and I was 31.

“But to do so well in that season was a massive confidence boost for me - it was a pivotal year for me.

“I didn’t really want to leave and I regret the way it happened.

“I hope now that time has passed that the Colchester fans understand my reasons for going.

“I felt at the time that it was the only chance I would get at the age I was.

“At the time, other players had left and the changeover of chairmen probably didn’t help.

“It was a shame that after such a good year that the team was broken up.”

Cureton bagged his first senior goal 13 seconds after coming on as a substitute for Norwich against Chelsea on December 10, 1994.

It is the latest of a succession of milestones in the striker’s career and he has not stopped scoring since then.

Cureton, now plying his trade for Dagenham and Redbridge, feels he has matured as a player since his early days at Carrow Road.

“I didn’t know about the anniversary of that goal against Chelsea until someone mentioned it to me recently,” said Cureton, who plans to move back to his house in Sudbury next month.

“It seems every so often there’s a milestone like this but I’m still enjoying my football now just as much, if not more.

“I’ve probably got more enthusiasm and appetite now than I’ve ever had.

“I think about that goal now and again and it’s a level I never got back to.

“There are little regrets now and again about not having played there longer but I’ve still managed to carve out a career for myself.

“As a young man, you tend to take your career for granted and I cherish the games a bit more now.

“I look back on those early days and I wish I’d kept more memorabilia but it was probably the way I was back then.

“They’re precious memories and as your career goes on, you treasure every game and every goal even more.”