Released Town keeper Mike Salmon has turned down Steve Whitton's offer of a one-year contract at Colchester United. Former Blues player Whitton is instead looking to ex-loanee Richard Knight.

The Colchester manager says Salmon, 36, felt he couldn't accept the Layer Road deal at this point in his career: "Mike still feels that he has a lot to offer the game as a player.

"He still wants to be number one somewhere and if he came to Colchester one of his jobs would be coaching our current number one Simon Brown."

Salmon, who joined Town in the summer of 1999, hasn't made a senior appearance since making his loan debut for Oxford in their 7-1 home loss to Birmingham in December 1998.

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