football rambles

This was my first trip to a Football League Trophy aka Papa John's Trophy game and it might well have been my last (can't completely rule out Ipswich at home in it though!). After the excitement of the game against Burton on Saturday, this was a bit of a lacklustre affair. Only a quarter of the ground - as expected - was open and there were a lot of part-timers taking their opportunity to see future Gooners in action. I can't say I knew any of the Arsenal players and Cambridge rang the changes to give some of the fringe players a go. I am really hoping that Rossi doesn't get near the first team any time soon, as he was turned inside out time and time again by the Arsenal attack.  Arsenal dominated most of the game and it was only the introduction of first team mainstays Ironside, May and Knibbs that really looked like creating anything, but at two down with 25 minutes left they were unable to change the U's fortunes. The damage had already been done though with two

 An early contender for match of the season. Saturday saw Burton Albion and their under-fire manager Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink visit the Abbey and despite a bright start things don't get back for the Brewers. They started off very strongly and set-up from kick-off with what looked like a fool-hardy 0-3-7 formation. We were laughing on the other side of our faces a few seconds later though when Gassan Ahadme put the visitors ahead on what was the first attack and with less than a minute on the clock.  As seems to often be the case with Burton though, they don't like to make things easy for themselves. On 10 minutes Johnny Smith was given his marching orders for an off the ball incident and despite being a goal up the Brewers were going to be playing with 10 men for 80 minutes. It seemed imperative that Cambridge put something on the board before the break and it was with some relief  when Sam Smith, who was looking to play Joe Ironside in somehow scored from a cross to give the Us

 After a week in France, we were back at the football. The train strike put pay to the plans of going to Peterborough United v Lincoln or Peterborough Sports v Chester or Charlton V Cambridge. Instead we ended up at Ely Reserves, it was alright but not something that i really want to make a habit of this season.

 Saturday saw two of the teams newly promoted to the Conference North take on each other at the Bee Arena on Lincoln Road. It's really difficult to know how either team will fare and after Saturday, I am still none the wiser. In truth Buxton had the best of the early play and created more chances, but I can't say that they had any gilt-edged chances either. However, it was Sports who took the lead on the half hour mark when Dan Jarvis converted from the penalty spot. The Buxton players and fans were all complaining that when he slipped he took two touches before the ball went into the net, but as Sean has video evidence to the contrary, I am not sure where the collective illusion came from Buxton were on level terms, and deservedly so, ahead of the break when Jason Gilchrist scored an absolute screamer. The second half was dominated even more by Buxton, but this was mainly down to Kyle Barker being sent off on the 48th minute for a second bookable offence, which in all honesty

 Tuesday night saw our second trip to the Abbey in three days and also saw another 1-0 against opposition who were expected to beat the Us, when Millwall from the Championship were the visitors. Both teams were playing a mix of seasoned first teamers and fringe players, but it was Cambridge who for most of the game looked like they were from the higher league. Millwall had the (pardon the pun) lion's share of the shots and possession, but their passing lacked the accuracy of Cambridge and Shilow Tracey was causing Millwall some problems at the back, although a lot of the time the Us' midfield's passing was often snuffed out before Ironside or Janneh could do much with it. The deadlock was finally ended just before the hour mark when Liam O'Neil scored to put the Us in the lead. After this Millwall imploded and the experienced George Honeyman let his feelings get the better of him and saw red. Millwall huffed and puffed, but with 10 men and some intelligent substitutes f

  Only July, but the first day of the season for the Football League and two of the teams that I had already seen in pre-season took on each other. MK Dons are amongst the favourites to go up and Cambridge are one of the favourites to go down, but on this performance and in pre-season, I'd imagine that Cambridge will be safe - if they don't get too many injuries and I don't think MK will be threatening the top 6. Cambridge came out of the blocks early in this game and were rewarded when Harvey Knibbs slotted home on 17 minutes to take the lead. MK had hit the bar early on, but Cambridge were the better team in the first half and deserved the lead that they took into the break. The second half saw the Dons apply the pressure on Cambridge, but Okedina, Jones and Dink did well to keep them at bay in defence and May and Digby did a solid job of protecting them. One moment of note for the Us  was the introduction of Saikou Janneh, who looks like an exciting prospect going forwar