There are no guesses as to who was sporting the widest smile as Colchester snatched a richly-deserved point from this hard-fought draw with promotion-chasers Tranmere.
Joint record-signing Adrian Coote, a rare starter in the U's line-up since his arrival from Norwich City, took the honours by a mile after earning the 69th minute penalty which earned lowly U's their 2-2 draw.
Kem Izzet celebrates with Joe Keith after the former West Ham trainee salvages a point from the penalty spot.
Joe Keith, now the Layer Road top scorer with five goals, duly put the spot-kick away to cancel out goals, against the run of play, from Rovers' Simon Haworth and Mickey Mellon, sandwiched by an early strike from Scott McGleish.
"Cootey worked so well for us," said Whitton. "He won us the penalty, won all his headers, chased throughout and worked hard all match for the team.
"He went away from our talks and came back and proved me wrong. I never mind being proved wrong like that."
Colchester went into the game looking for their first home win since last October and included fit again Mark Warren and Coote for Alan White and Kevin Rapley, who were starting one and three-match bans.
Rovers brought in Dutchman Tyrone Loran on loan from Manchester City for his English debut and Iain Hume for suspended duo Graham Allen and Ryan Taylor.
Spurred on by Coote, man-of-the-match Kemal Izzet and Joe Keith, the U's lost little time getting into their stride and McGleish finished off a sparkling start with a goal inside 12 minutes.
The former Barnet man had already smacked an angled shot against a post and volleyed another chance high over the bar, but he sneaked in to turn the ball past Rovers keeper John Achterberg from close range for his fourth goal of the season after Izzet superbly headed on a Keith corner.
Tranmere only rarely threatend, but dangerman Haworth snatched an equaliser right out of the blue seven minutes before half-time after he had seen an earlier header ruled out for offside.
Colchester picked up where they left off when play resumed, but were rocked back on their heels on the hour when Rovers skipper Mellon curled in a magnificent 25-yard free-kick to snatch the lead against the run of play after Izzet had fouled Gary Jones.
It began to look as though the U's were going to experience yet another of those days until Keith rammed home a 69th minute equaliser from the penalty spot after Loran ruined his Rovers debut by needlessly chopping down Coote in the area.
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Published Monday, January 6, 2003
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