Friday Night's All Wright for TV chat show host Ian Wright, but Saturdays are proving tiresome for Burnley's high-profile striker.

The former England striker failed to hit the goal trail for the second successive week, having missed out on his debut against Wigan seven days earlier.

And to make matters worse the ex-Arsenal, West Ham and Celtic star picked up a booking for an 83rd-minute off-the-ball incident with Colchester's Karl Duguid.

But Wright, who disappointed a host of eager young autograph hunters by secretly slipping away from Layer Road after the match via the dressing room's back door, was not the only player to suffer.

Poor Joe Dunne, who didn't enjoy one of his better matches for Colchester, may have been mistakenly booked by referee Rob Styles instead of Duguid after his flare-up.

Wright, who boasts a remarkable record of 234 goals in 487 outings, had hardly been out of the headlines all week and this intriguing Division Two clash between two in-form teams was billed everywhere as the Ian Wright show.

The U's biggest crowd since the televised game last March against Manchester City turned up to see the former Highbury ace in action, but after the fans impeccably observed a minute's silence in memory of England legend Sir Stanley Matthews - who died last Wednesday - it was Wright's unsung team-mate Steve Davis who stole the show.

Davis, a constant thorn in the U's side over the years for both Burnley and his previous club Luton, won this match with two great first-half goals to keep the impressive Clarets right up there in the promotion race.

The goal-getting Burnley skipper and attacking central defender had only scored once this season prior to Saturday, but he took just 17 minutes to double his tally only seconds after Wright had missed a far post sitter.

Burnley won a corner on the left and when Paul Cook's flag-kick was only half cleared back to him, he swung the ball back into the penalty box where Davis roared in to rattle a shot just inside the near post.

It took the U's just two minutes to redress the damage and they were back on level terms thanks to the quick thinking and cool finishing of leading marksman Steve McGavin.

Burnley keeper Paul Crichton made a terrible hash of clearing a back-pass from Ian Cox and McGavin, 12 yards out, seized his opportunity to slide the ball into the empty net on the angle. It was McGavin's 13th goal in 27 matches.

Jamie Moralee should have had the U's in front after only two minutes following a great build-up on the left, but the striker hit his shot straight at the keeper.

David Gregory then blazed an angled effort into the side-netting following a superb defence-splitting pass from McGavin.

Sadly for the U's when the ball did hit the back of the net again it was through that man Davis who restored Burnley's lead seven minutes before the break.

The visitors won another corner on the left and this time Davis steamed in to meet Glenn Little's kick with a powerful header just inside the far post.

Andy Cooke, John Mullin, Paul Cook and Wright all went close in an exciting, end-to-end opening period, but even the early introduction of U's supersub Lomana Tresor Lua Lua failed to spark life into a disappointing second half.

Wright missed a great chance just past the hour when he attempted to chip U's keeper Simon Brown from 20 yards with time and space to do much better.

Meanwhile the U's barely troubled Crichton who spent much of the second 45 minutes as a spectator.

Wright did have two or three more half-chances to open his account, but he left Layer Road with only his first booking in a Burnley shirt.

Wright here, right now - Burnley's big-name striker Ian Wright (left) helped to swell the crowd to a season's best 6,194 at Layer Road and, right, was embraced by U's star Lomana Tresor Lua Lua after the final whistle.

Pictures: STEVE ARGENT

Duguid on Wright: 'He believes he's untouchable'

Colchester striker Karl Duguid said of his 83rd-minute skirmish with Ian Wright: "The bloke obviously believes he's untouchable.

"He hit me in the face as I tried to shepherd the ball out of play near the corner flag and he didn't like it when I had a little dig back at him.

"He said to me: 'I'll see you in the tunnel afterwards' as the referee called us together.

"As I was saying to him 'so it's alright for you to smack me in the face', Wrighty was saying to the fans: 'who does he think he is then?'"

Delighted that his team won the match, Burnley boss Stan Ternent felt that Wright was unjustly booked. He said: "I felt the Colchester lad could have been sent-off for what he did.

"Ian Wright is one of the greatest goalscorers of our time and with that he will always be heavily marked. We have to expect that.

"But that incident aside, Steve Whitton is doing a tremendous job at Colchester and it's always a difficult place to come and win.

"I felt my lads showed great resilience to hit back after gifting Colchester an equaliser."

Ternent added: "Although it's very tight at the top, we are up there in the leading half dozen and enjoying every minute of it."

How the U's rated

BROWN: Question mark over second goal ... 6

DUNNE: Not at his best ... 6

KEITH: Dependable as ever ... 7

R JOHNSON: Pick of the defence ... 8

WILKINS: Good again ... 8

G JOHNSON: Lacked vital edge... 6

GREGORY: Hampered by calf injury... 6

DOZZELL: Defensive duties lacking ... 6

DUGUID: Mixed things up again ... 7

MORALEE: Lightweight up front ... 6

McGAVIN: Good all-round display ... 8

Subs: Lua Lua (Gregory 50): Held up the ball well ... 7

Lock (Moralee 62): Little chance to shine ... 6

Skelton (Dunne 84).

Not used: Walker, Arnott.

Match facts

Burnley: Crichton, Cox, Thomas, Mullin, Branch, P Cook, Davis, Johnrose, A Cooke, Wright, Little.

Subs: Jepson (Mullin 90). Not used : West, Smith, Mellon, Brass.

Scorers: ... U's - McGavin (19). Burnley - Davis (17, 38)

Referee: Rob Styles (Hampshire): Firm control ... 7

Bookings: U's - Keith (59 foul), Dunne (83 foul, mistakenly for Duguid). Burnley - Davis (58 foul), Wright (83 foul).

Sendings-off: ... None

Attendance: ...6,194

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