football rambles

 Despite an unseasonably wet Saturday afternoon that could have ended up as a boat race instead of football, Cambridge got the season off to a great start. To be honest, Cambridge stayed up by the skins of their teeth last year and then lost several of the more established players, so I wasn't exactly looking forward to the start of the season down at the Abbey. However, it would seem that some of the replacements are perhaps upgrades and maybe, just maybe the season will go better than expected. To start there is a new goal keeper in town with Jack Stevens having signed on a free from Oxford, as they ended up playing with a 19 year old in goal, they may want to question having let him go. He wasn't realy tested on Saturday, so it will be interesting to see how he gets on. Michael Morrison, who also joined on a free (from Portsmouth) looks like a good veteran and calm head to have in central defence. So much so he has been given the captains armband. The two Bennetts in defence...

 Finally a win! It seems like ages since we witnessed a Cambridge win at the Abbey - because other than a dead rubber in the Papa John Trophy in reality it is! Both teams went into this game in terrible form, but given that Cambridge had lost at home in the week to fellow strugglers Cheltenham, we weren't confident of getting a result and a defeat would have surely meant a final nail in the coffin of any hopes of staying in League 1 next season. It's still going to be hard, but at least this result gives the Us some hope and there were encouraging signs from players coming into the team. Ryan Bennett who joined as a free agent added some solidity in defence. Liam Bennett returning from a loan move at Walsall offered something different at full-back. Conor McGrandles, who joined on loan from Charlton added some bite to midfield and Jack Lankester, who was already at the club added a spark going forward. I was also impressed by George Thomas, who signed on deadline day from QPR a...

 Well, this was an entertaining game, if not the result we had wanted. In some ways it was a fitting tribute for Oxford legend, Joey Beauchamp, who had sadly passed away at 50 years old the previous week. It was a good performance by Cambridge overall against a team who were amongst the favourites to go up at the start of the season and should be making the play-offs now. Sam Smith opened the scoring for the Us on 6 minutes with a well worked goal. He had actually had a spell on loan at Oxford, but the way he celebrated  made it clear that he didn't spend an enjoyable time at the other university city.  Unfortunately, Cambridge were unable to hold on to the lead going into the break after Matt Taylor scored. To be honest, the linesman on that side didn't seem to be able to raise his flag for offside, but he suddenly remembered how his arms worked when Cambridge were attacking down that side! The second half saw Cambridge come out with an attacking intent that they have so...

 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...

On Thursday I went to the match between Cambridge United and Oxford United in the Conference. The game was on Setanta and the Press were sponsoring the game, so I managed to get cheap tickets for the South Stand rather than the Newmarket Road End where I usually go when visiting the Abbey. It was a little strange sitting with people who are more interested in drinking coffee than watching football and at the other extreme we also had a run in with the Dutch groundhoppers, who actually seemed quite cool for groundhoppers and were visiting the game after being at Blackburn v Bolton the previous night. The Brazilian drummers gave the whole evening quite a csmopolitan feel, but the football and the weather was about as far as you could get from the Maracana. Oxford who had won their previous five matches started quickly and Adam Murray's goal on 9 minutes for the visitors was his 3rd shot on target. The Us tried to respond, but weren't using the width of the pitch unlike their oppo...