archived posts
Cambridge United: September 2010
Hello friends and welcome back to the second month of my first season with Cambridge United which saw us shoot to the top of the table in August. Lets’ see if we can hold onto that top spot?
The new month started off with the Manager of the Month award for august which I was well pleased about.
With the international break upon us I arranged“fitness friendly” against Hyde which we ran out a comfortable 4-1 winner.
Our first BSP game of the month was at The Abbey Stadium against Rushden who had climbed up to 5th place. After a very casual opening twenty minutes the pace of N’Goma told the story being first to reach a Williams through ball to give us the lead. Three minutes later a long clearance from defence was flicked on by forward Danny Wright and N’Goma was there to unleash his firepower sending the ball crashing into the roof of the net. Scott Wotton added a third from a corner early in the second half and Fofana who came on for the tired N’Goma completed the rout by robbing the Rushden keeper of a back pass and nonchalantly putting the ball into the net. Rushden managed a late consolation goal but the game was already over by then.
The following game was a trip north to face Darlington and if it were not for the acrobatic saves of the Darlington keeper we should have been 5-0 up at half time but as it was the game remained scoreless as we went in for our half time mug of tea. The home side made a far more encouraging start to the second half allowing our keeper Bouzanis to pull off some heroics of his own though finally we created an attack that produced a goal from unlikely source in LB Joseph Mills which certainly looked like the winner until the hero turned villain with a poor clearance that led to a late equalizer for Darlington.
Next up was the visit of 21st place Wrexham and I decided to rotate one of two players which resulted in a dominant performance but lacked any real creativity in the final third. Wrexham who lined up defensively snatched the only goal of the game early on with a familiar looking left flank attack that resulted in a clinical finish by Dean Keates. Meanwhile we didn’t do anything down our left side at all. What the heck!!
Late in the weekend I managed to secure a short term replacement for Dominic Shimmin who was on a long term injury so Adam Smith will be joining us for two months from Spurs
The following game was away to Fleetwood and a frustrating first half saw Mustapha Traore having two headers cleared off the line and striker Danny Wright being robbed by a last ditched tackle as he was about to shoot into an empty net. Fleetwood took the lead through an own goal by young LB Tomos Roberts who nerves got the better of him under pressure but Fofana brought us back on level terms right on the stroke of half time with a typical powerful finish. The second half though was a midfield battle and by the 70th minute my team was exhausted and with an injury to Fofana reducing us to 10 men the home side fashioned a late winner deep into injury time to mark up our second defeat in a row.
The last game of the month featured the visit of second place Luton Town which meant this game could be pivotal so early in the season. Some sloppy passing allowed Luton to take the lead after 14 minutes but Scott Wotton’s header on goal from a corner deflected off a Luton player to make it 1-1 soon afterwards. Dorian N’ Goma’s sweeping shot from a cross by 18 year old MR Jack Eades making his first start for the team put us ahead and then Danny Wright stretched the lead further latching onto a through ball from Craig Tawnton to make it 3-1 at the half. Luton came out on full attack mode after the break and pulled a goal back also immediately but a solid effort by Craig Tawnton in the centre of midfield ensured that it was all they were going to get and a missed opportunity by N’Goma meant the score remained unchanged for the rest of the match. It was a vital win at the end of what was a relatively disappointing month in terms of performance.
Results Summary
League Table
Fixtures
Those back to back losses cost us top spot though thankfully not by much and we will be facing the new leaders in the middle of next month. Hopefully some of my players injuries will have cleared up by then.
Thanks for reading and stay safe!