Tragic Queens Park Rangers player Ray Jones came very close to signing forms for Colchester United.

The talented England youth international, who would have celebrated his 19th birthday today, was killed in a car accident on Friday evening in East Ham.

Jones was the subject of two official bids by the U's during the summer and the Layer Road club were known admirers of the youngster.

But less than three years earlier, it seems only a last-minute hitch put paid to the young striker signing for Colchester.

Jones (pictured) played for the U's in a trial game at Essex University when he was 16.

He impressed the then youth-team manager Joe Dunne and the club's former youth development officer Adrian Webster, so much so that they invited him to play in a reserve-team game.

Dunne and former Colchester boss Phil Parkinson watched Jones play as a substitute at a Combination fixture at Reading.

They made up their minds to sign him but the deal fell through at the 11th hour and he signed for QPR in July, 2005.

Dunne told the Gazette: "Ray played for 15 minutes against Reading reserves and we offered him a scholarship.

"But we found out that his birth date was not spot on and that he was a year ahead of what we had believed him to be.

"That meant he would have only been a one-year scholar, which is not something we offered players at the time."