It took Lua Lua just seven minutes to make his mark after coming on as a half-time substitute for the injured Duguid against Chesterfield.

He came within a couple of inches of scoring with his first touch before thrilling the Layer Road crowd with a jinking solo matchwinner shortly after.

"It was typical Lomana," said Whitton. "He looked different class - if only he would do it all the time.

"He's exciting to watch, but he makes us tear our hair out when he doesn't do it. It's very hard to learn the game when you are in the first team because results are always more important."

Whitton, however, is not allowing his team to get carried away by their hard-earned success which lifted them out of the bottom four.

He said: "It was one we had to win and it was important we didn't concede a goal in a first half that was worse than our home games against Brentford and Cardiff.

"I thought Vaughan was outstanding and White was solid at the back. I will be speaking to both players with a view to extending their stay at Layer Road.

"But now is the time that we have all got to work harder."

The U's game at Gillingham on Boxing Day, Sunday December 26, will kick off at 1pm due to floodlight problems.

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