LUA LUA LOAN BID REJECTED

Mick Wadsworth, the Newcastle United head coach, who initially discovered the athletic forward told his former team to look elsewhere.

Lua Lua was snapped up in a £2.25 million move by Newcastle earlier in the season but has failed to make an impact on the first team at St James's Park, despite impressing with a burst of goals to send The U's into mid-table respectability and earning himself a dream move to the North East.

Now with a relegation battle rapidly becoming a reality, Colchester were hoping for the firepower of Lua Lua to shoot them back up the table.

However, Wadsworth said: "Steve Whitton has been told that Lomana Lua Lua is staying at St James's Park.

"We want to continue his development on Tyneside for next season, which we consider to be a big one. We are hoping that he makes a big impact then.

Whitton countered: "I did make a phone call, simply because I saw that Alan Shearer was fit again and that Carl Court was getting back to fitness.

"If you don't ask, you don't get. There was no harm in asking."