Cambridge United: December 2010

Hello my friends and hope you had a wonderful weekend wherever you are in the world. I’m happy to bring you yet another update in my latest Football Manager Story so lets’s see what happened in the last month of 2010.

The first game of the month was at The Abbey Stadium with the visit of Altrincham who were a mid- table side. After a very quiet start the game exploded as a vicious tackle on striker Danny Wright that saw Altrincham reduced to 10 men after 15 minutes. We responded instantly with a superb shot from outside the box by Shane Williams to get his first senior goal which was followed by another from N’Goma  5 minutes later who turned the ball into the net from a corner after the keeper had dropped it. A scintillating run by LB Tomos Roberts ended in a cross that Will Hatfield met with a diving header to put us three up on the half four mark and N’Goma added a fourth, pouncing on a terrible back pass and his shot easily beat the Altrincham keeper. With such a one sided game I was convinced of a massive victory but the second half produced a poorer performance and we even allowed Altrincham to score on the counter attacking move.  I was happy with the win but felt more could have been achieved.

The following game was a trip to Crawley which I had a bad feeling about as game day rolled around. My fears were soon realized as Crawley’s Tony Edgar drove the ball past GK Dean Bouzanis within the first minute. This fired up the home side who took the game by the scruff of the neck and added two more before the half hour with GK Bouzanis’s morale plummeting like a brick in water. Dorian N’Goma was the only bright light for us but he couldn’t do it all by himself and even though we put in a more credible second half performance the humiliation was completed with yet another Crawley goal in injury time.

So here we go another game against Histon and this time it’s an FA Trophy first round tie. When this game came up I initially thought about fielding a weaker team but after the heavy defeat away to Crawley I felt we should bounce back strongly. A typical left flank build up saw Karl Moore sprint towards the by-line and his cross was met by the foot of Fofana for a goal inside 10 minutes. In similar fashion Fofana would be the provider just before half time with his cross being headed in by Danny Wright. An innocent looking cross bounced off our crossbar and provided a goal for Histon moments later and a way back into a game we were dominating. Not surprisingly Histon had the momentum in the second half which eventually produced the equalizer as skipper Brian Saha’s poor marking allowed for an easy equalizing goal. Karl Moore though lifted his game again and his cross caused panic in the Histon defence forcing an own goal after 75 minutes which would turn out to be the winner and send us through to the second round.

It was back to league action and the visit of Mansfield to The Abbey Stadium. Dorian N’Goma gave us the lead after 23 minutes picking up the ball in midfield and beating four players before striking past the Mansfield keeper for a sensational goal. From there things became frustrating with N’Goma missing an easy chance from 8 yards out minutes later and Traore have the first of three headers cleared off the line just before the interval. Mansfield would equalize with a spectacular goal of their own late in the game and Fofana had another header cleared off the line as we settled for a draw heading in to Christmas campaign. Young left back Tomos Roberts who was injured during the match will be out for up to 8 weeks which is a bit of a set-back especially with so many games coming up in a short period of time.

With the Xmas celebrations over, such as they were, we travelled north to face York City in this Boxing Day encounter. Will Hatfield got us off to a great start with a low diving header from a cross by N’Goma who was looking lively in the opening minutes. Shane Williams who broke down a York attacked sent N’Goma chasing the ball like a greyhound after a rabbit and his dribbling skills beat two men before neatly beating the opposing keeper. In similar fashion a Karl Moore through ball initiated another electrifying run but this time N’Goma crossed the ball and there was Williams to smash it home for our third within 30 minutes. The score remained unchanged until just before the hour mark when York pulled one back with a spectacular 30 yard effort and threw themselves a lifeline with another goal after we failed to clear a corner with 18 minutes left on the clock. N’Goma was not finished for the afternoon and another devastating run down the left flank ended with a cross that was met by the head of Danny Wright for goal number four thus sealing the victory and three points in the bag. The victory celebrations were short lived as another devastating blow came from the treatment room as RB Dominic Shimmin will be out for at least four months which is pretty much the rest of the season. That’s both full backs in a matter of days.

The final game of the year was at home to Forest Green and with having to rotate a number of players I told my young Dutch striker Danny Hoesen to relax, there’s no pressure which he responded to with a goal after just three minutes. Fofana quickly added a second with a powerful strike having run onto a through ball from ML Andrew Spencer who himself added a third goal with a glancing header from a cross by David McDermott who then got on the score sheet, beating the offside trap and neatly placing the ball past the keeper. Forest Green got a goal themselves with a long range effort in between which left us 4-1 up after half an hour though quickly became 5-1 before half time as Hoesen  ran into the six yard area to meet an Andrew Spencer cross that left the Forest Green keeper stranded. The game was all but done by the half time whistle though the visitors did pull one back as we relaxed too much in the second half but all in all it was a great way to end 2010

Results Summary

The pleasing thing is that the strkers are scoring again though goals are coming from all positions on the field which is nice too. We could do better defensively which is something I’ll have to review in training.

League Table

We have now extended to gap to 7 points over Newport and hopefully we can add to that in the second half of the season. At this stage a play off spot is a reasonable assumption to make if this form continues.

Fixtures

We begin the New Year with a very busy schedule which features two cup ties the most attractive being out trip to Pride Park to take on Derby County in the FA Cup Third Round and perhaps a «giant-killing» opportunity? We’ll just thave to wait and see….

Thanks for reading and look forward to your comments.