Steve Whitton takes his Colchester United squad into the second half of the season with the admission it has taken them longer to recover from the sale of Lomana Tresor Lua Lua than he had hoped.

"Lomana's transfer was a massive blow to us all," said Whitton, "But it was a great deal for the club - everybody knows that."

The crowd-pleasing teenage match winner was sold to Bobby Robson's Premiership giants Newcastle for a staggering £2.25 million at the end of September after the U's had mustered just ten points from eight Division Two games.

Whitton's squad has since gone on to collect 30 points from 23 games - the half way mark of their League season.

And although the U's boss declared himself pleased to be nine points better off than at the same stage last season, he believes his team would be even more successful if Lua Lua was still a U's player.

"Let's get one thing clear. The Lua Lua deal just had to happen," said Whitton.

"But it has taken us longer to recover than I hoped. The lads always knew every time the ball went forward Lomana would make things happen.

"He was a matchwinner that other teams were frightened of all the time. And it gave our lads a lot of confidence whenever he was on the ball.

"The players that have come into the team since his departure have generally done well for us, but Lomana was a little bit special and it has taken a long time to recover from his departure."

That said, Whitton pointed out if anyone had said before the start of the season the U's were going to have 30 points at the halfway point he would have been happy.

He said: "Our season has been very up and down since Lomana's transfer and we might have had more points, but we could also have had less.

"And while I'm always looking upwards I'm also keeping one eye on those teams beneath us. Although I am always aiming for the top, promotion is an unrealistic dream for us because of our poor gates and the number of richer clubs with bigger squads.

"But we are in the top half of the table now and that's where I want us to stay and push forward from now on.

"My first target now is 53 points to go one better than the last two seasons and really establish Colchester United as a good Second Division team.

"My challenge for the second half of the season will be to do even better than that,"

Saturday's game at Rotherham is already in doubt because the Millmoor pitch is frozen under a layer of snow.

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