football rambles

 Saturday saw Cambridge post a shock result against one of the biggest clubs in League 1 (and there are a lot this season) by beating Bolton 1-0 at a packed out Abbey. Cambridge managed to draw first blood and then stay strong at the back. The peerless Wes Hoolahan had a fine game and ran himself ragged the whole match. On 16 minutes he threaded the ball to George Williams who squared it to Shilow Tracey to fire home. For long periods of the game it looked like Bolton would get an equaliser as they ramped up the pressure on Cambridge who seemed happy to defend and hit Bolton on the break, usually trying to feed Joe Ironside who would then get wrestled to the ground, occasionally with the intervention of the referee.  Cambridge stayed strong though and an impressive performance all round and especially in goals from Dimitar Mitov kept the Us on track to record an impressive victory.    

 I am a bit late in catching up with this game from last Saturday (21/8), and we are only a couple of days from the next home Cambridge game where the Us take on Bolton at the Abbey. In the game with Burton, the Brewers went into the game on fine form and must have fancied their chances against Cambridge who are one of the favourites for the drop and haven't exactly been knocking the goals in. They did get a bit of a help in this game though! Both teams had chances in the second half with Cambridge feeling like the most likely to score despite Burton having more of a threat up front. The deadlock was broken on 51 minutes when Sam Smith scored for Cambridge. We still didn't feel too confident though, but on 73 minutes Thomas Harmer put the ball in his own goal to give Cambridge a 2-0 lead. Just 6 minutes later the hapless Harmer got his second at the wrong end when a George Williams cross (or shot) took a massive deflection off him to give what at least on paper looked like an i

 Sunday saw a return to the Unwin or Demcom as it is called at the moment to watch the reserves take on Somersham Town. Ely scored in the opening 5 minutes and scored again before half time before getting a third early on in the second half. It was a pretty comfortable and comprehensive victory against a Somersham team that looked a bit out of their depth 

 Cambridge took on Swindon in the first round of the Carabao Cup last night in what would have been a League 2 fixture last year. It was a bit difficult to see where either of the teams stand this season with both of them bringing in several changes for this game. I would think that Swindon's aims for the season would be League 2 playoffs and Cambridge's would be League 1 survival, but the chance of drawing a big name in the cup is something that can bring any team some financial stability, especially with fans now back in the grounds. The game itself wasn't a classic. Cambridge are in desperate need of a striker after  Paul Mullins departed for Wrexham. It's anybody's guess to why he dropped down to nonleague to sign for a club with cash to burn on salaries despite being at a considerably lower level ;) Anyway, Cambridge had the lion's share of the chances and Swindon seemed content on the occasional hit and hope. Neither team looked really like scoring and Cam

 Yesterday we returned to the Abbey for the second weekend in a row. It was a bit of a contrast with the game the weekend before when they took on Northampton in a friendly, as the Us returned to League 1 and took on Oxford who made the play-offs last year. When you look around the budgets of a lot of the clubs in this league, you can see that it isn't going to be easy for Cambridge this season, but what we saw today was encouraging enough in front of a packed out Abbey. True, Oxford statistically had the better of the game having more shots and the lion's share of the possession, but the result was probably a fair reflection and when Cambridge found the equaliser it felt like they might push on to get a winner with the crowd behind them. In the first half both sides had their chances, and Ironside and Tracey were busy up front for Cambridge without looking like scoring. The Cambridge defence looked a little shaky and I was less than impressed with George Williams at right back

 this game brought to a conclusion the pre-season games for Cambridge and for us. They start their competitive fixtures against Oxford next week. A game we will also be attending. The weather was better than forecast, but the football didn't really live up to a great game. It looked like what it was a good warm up for the season ahead. Liam Roberts had a good game in goal for Northampton and amongst other things saved a penalty. I thought Cambridge lacked a bit of end product. The seemed to float balls high and slowly into the box, which the Northampton defence dealt easily with, something hard and low would have probably caused Northampton more problems. Wes Hoolahan despite his advancing years played some really nice balls in midfield for the Us and it was clear that he had Premier League experience.  Harvey Knibbs was one player that I had been looking forward to seeing, but he didn't do loads for Cambridge before being subbed off.  Caleb   Chukwuemeka, who is the brother of