Cambridge United: League One Kick Off

Hello friends and I’m delighted to bring you that latest update from my Cambridge United odyssey. It’s been a while since I’ve been to The Abbey Stadium due to work commitments and an injured back but now I’m ready to start the new season in League One. There’s a lot to share so let’s get right to it.

August 2012

Before the opening game season against Dagenham, I made two new signings that will hopefully turn to out to be “Youth to Gold” prospects. The first is Italian goalkeeper Antonio Rigoni who was released by Napoli but certainly looks like a good enough prospect for Cambridge.

The second is young Swiss defender Sead Hajrovic who comes from Arsenal on a free and has also played in his homeland with Grasshoppers.

The opening game of the season saw us take on Dagenham at The Abbey Stadium who were also promoted to League One. We ran out a comfortable 2-0 winner with both goals headed in from set pieces by Scott Wootten and Will Keane. Striker Nadir Ciftci fractured his ribs during the game and will be gone for three months which is an early set back.

On the Tuesday night we faced Millwall in the first round of the League Cup and took the lead just on the stroke of half time through an own goal as the Millwall defence failed to deal with a low driven cross by Fofana. ML Alex Smith provided the cross for Will Keane to head home early in the second half and Keane added to his tally with a close range shot in injury time for a comprehensive victory.

With Ciftci out for a minimum of three months we decided to loan a short term striker and picked up Alex Nimely from Manchester City. He has decent speed and is very strong too so I can see him fitting in well on either side of my front two.

On the heels of our League Cup victory was a trip to Scunthorpe which saw the home side take the lead on the counter following a thunderous effort by Shane Williams that hit the bar. Will Keane though brought the game level again moments later with substitute Alex Nimley snatching the winner three minutes from time.

We were back at home for our next league game which saw our striker’s struggle against a very organized Yeovil defence. Polish winger Szczepaniak broke the deadlock after 24 minutes which we held onto until half time. Yeovil equalized in the 62nd minute but DC Victor Palsson headed us back in front from a floating free kick by Victor Hernandez which proved to be the winning goal.

The final game of the month saw us travel to Molineux to take on Premier League side Wolves in the second round of the League Cup. We‘d trained on the tactic that was successful against Liverpool in last season’s FA Cup but proved to be all wrong in this case with the home side running out a comfortable 3-0 winner.

Just before August concluded my scouts informed me of striker Rasmus Falk from Denmark so after a quick consultation with Assistant Warren Neill we snapped him up on a free.

August Results Summary

September 2012

Our first game of September saw us take on Notts County at Meadow Lane that despite having 17 attempts on goal we were denied a victory by poor finishing and superb goalkeeping by County’s Rob Burch. In the end it was the head of Scott Wootten that rescued a point for us two minutes from time.

We stayed away from home for our next game which was an early season top of the table clash with Brentford. With a couple of players on international duty and a major injury to starting LB Victor Hernandez it was a very much shuffled line up that took the field. Brentford took the lead after just 24 seconds and it took us another 37 minutes to get back into the game with an equalizer by Will Keane. Brentford though regained the lead early in the second half which resulted in a total surrender by my back four who gave up another two goals for an embarrassing defeat and some heated exchanges in the dressing room afterwards.

Following the defeat against Brentford it was back to The Abbey Stadium to take on Bournemouth who had swapped positions with us and were now in second place. The first ten minutes saw Karl Moore having a host of chances and a header by Wootten cleared off the line but it wasn’t until the right on half time that Alex Nimely put us in front with a neatly placed shot into the corner of the net. We continued to have the slight upper hand in the second half until our keeper decided to kick the ball instead of roll out to the left defender and all of a sudden it was 1-1. American Will Packwood came on after returning from injury and immediately intercepted a square ball across the centre circle and his pass found Will Keane who made no mistake and gave us back the lead and ultimately the victory.

The final two games of the month featured a thrilling 2-2 draw away to Charlton before ending up a 4-1 winner at home to Rotherham in which Shane Williams hit a cracker of a goal from twenty yards out and young Danish striker Rasmus Falk finally getting off the mark for the club.

Before the month ended I made one further signing mainly to appease my young Italian goalkeeper Rigoni who was getting homesick already. So another striker joins us in Davide Petrucci who has been with both Roma and Man United before finding himself in the football wilderness. He has decent attributes so could be very useful indeed even if it’s for selling him on at a profit.

September Results Summary

League One Table

So a better start than I expected being in third but as with last year my defence seems to go on a walk about and concede stupid goals that could cost us dearly later in the season. Not sure what to do about that?

Finances

After a long period of steady growth my finances have started to take a litlle bit of a dip so I’ll have to keep an eye on that fro sure.

Fixtures

So that completes this report and thanks very much for taking the time to read my update.