Davison the U's hero

By Carl Marston

Luton 1 Colchester United 1

AIDAN Davison may be in the twilight of his career, but he still produced one of the performances of his life to earn Colchester United a battling 1-1 draw at Luton Town last night.

Veteran keeper Davison, who turned 38 last May, was the only reason why the Hatters were not celebrating another home win.

Time and time again he kept Luton at bay with a string of breathtaking saves. Indeed, last night could rightly claim to be “The Aidan Davison Show!”

Former Ipswich Town striker Sam Parkin had headed Luton into a 31st minute lead, only for Jamie Cureton to smash home a 40th-minute equaliser. Davison then took centre-stage.

“It's a long time since I've had so much to do,” admitted an over-worked Davison.

“You have to go back a long time, to the days when I was at Bolton. I remember a game against Tranmere that was similar, which we actually won, but this was just as hectic.

“In fact, we were under even more pressure tonight. The luck went our way, and it was a good team effort. Luton kept pressing, and we could not relieve the pressure.

“However, I don't regard this as one of the very best performances of my career, because I was far too over-worked. I had too much to do. Strange as it may sound, I think some of my best games have come when I haven't had that many saves to make, because of the organisation of the defence.

“We need to tidy things up a little over the coming weeks, but we have a relatively inexperienced team, and the lads are learning all the time.

“It's a steep learning curve at this level, but we showed in this game that we really want to stay in this division,” added Davison.

Luton's Richard Langley missed a penalty in the 50th minute, while former Colchester old boy Rowan Vine had a goal ruled out for offside in the 53rd minute.

This backs-to-the-wall draw has stretched the U's unbeaten run to three matches.

Full match report and pictures in today's EADT