Cambridge United: A taste of reality…

Hello friends and greetings from Toronto as I bring you another update in my Cambridge Football Manager Story. We are about to embark on our most biggest season in the clubs history playing in the Premier League and Europe for the fist time to lets see how the opening couple of months unfolded.

August 2014

The opening game of the new season had finally come and we travelled across country to Cheshire to face Everton at Goodison Park. We didn’t get off to the best of starts as Everton took the lead after just 5 minutes but Borja Baston soon out us back on level terms with a stunning strike into the top right hand corner of the net. Javi Lopez gave us the lead from a simple tap in from a cross by Dossenna but Everton equalized before half time with an unreal strike from almost 40 yards out.

The second half was again end to end stuff with Julien Gorius putting us in front once more with a superb diving header and just when it seemed we had the game under control the home side came up with yet another unbelievable long distance effort to tie the game and thus ensured that each of us went away with a point.

Five days later we traveled to Portugal to take on Leiria for our first ever European game in the 4th qualifying round of the Euro Cup. RW Johnny Gorman got us off to a dream start cutting inside from a run down the right flank and curling his shot into the roof of the net after just 7 minutes. Scott Wooten added a second some 20 minutes later with a typical powerful header from a Walcott corner and those two first half goals would prove enough to get our Euro campaign off to a good start.

Not surprisingly our EPL fixtures had been rearranged so we found ourselves playing Leiria again at home in our next match. MC Steve Brown got the second leg off to a tremendous start with a stunning low drive after just 3 minutes that easily beat the visiting goalkeeper. Leiria pressured us for the next 15 minutes and were rewarded with an equalizer though Jacob Walcott’s curling shot from 20 yadrs out restored the lead after the half hour. After the break Scott Wootten headed in a third that put the game beyond any doubt though Leiria came up with a consolation goal 13 minutes from time.

Having been rewarded with a massive £870,000, the Group stage draw for the Euro Cup saw us end up in Group L for “Loser”. A quick glance at the opposition will see that we stand very little chance of making an impact in the round robin stage though we should get some good pay days in terms of gate receipts!

Having gotten over the shock of who we had to face on the Euro Cup it was back to the reality of the EPL and a mid-week game against Man City. The home side were in no mood to go easy on us and suffice to say we were totally out played, out classed and out of our depth ending up the recipients of an 8-0 thrashing. This was followed by another defeat at home a few days later to Birmingham City.

The following Thursday saw the visit of Fenerbahce in our for Group match for the Euro Cup. We surprisingly took the lead after 22 minutes when Baston flicked on a corner ball that bounced off the keeper and into the net 1-0. This boosted morale and we found ourselves comfortably playing the ball around but it wasn’t until late in the second half that we doubled our lead as Conor Newton made an intelligent run into the box to meet a Walcott cross to secure the three points for us.

With no league game on the schedule for the weekend our next game was a League Cup 3rd round against Birmingham who had just beaten us 2-0. The first half was evenly contested but the deadlock was broken by ST Gianna Bruno’s first goal of the season with a powerful strike just before the half time whistle. Bruno hit another powerful effort that goalkeeper Foster pushed into his own net 5 minutes into the second half and Bruno was involved in the third goal after being brought down in the box with Gorius converting the penalty. Fellow Italian Bandiera headed in his first goal of the season with Newton adding a fifth 6 minutes from time for a shock result.

The draw for the fourth round will see us play Spurs at home.

After that stunning League Cup performance it was back to the EPL and a home game against Chelsea in which we were totally outplayed once more with the visitors running out a comfortable 3-0 winner.

Although we have a couple of games in hand we find ourselves firmly at the foot of the table with a massive 16 goals against us already. Based on our opponents so far I’m not really upset to see us propping up the table.

Transfer News:

Before the deadline expired I made three new signings – two goalkeepers and another midfielder. I have a gut feeling I’ll lose one of my first teamers between the sticks this season so I picked up these couple of youngsters with Alonso carrying a hefty sticker price. I hope my scouts are right about him.

I’m quite excited about my other Spaniard MC Mariano Blanco who again cost quite a bit to bring to The Abbey Stadium but could be a player to make money on sometime in the future.

Fixtures

We have quite a few games coming up over the next two months starting off with a massive task against Inter Milan and then having to take on Arsenal shortly afterwards. The prospect of a double header with Spurs is not that appealing either!

That completes this update and as always thanks for taking the time to read this. Have a great day!!