A walk in the park
On Saturday me and Sean went to Cambridge United v Gateshead and apart from spending an arm and a leg it was a great day out, unfortunately I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures to go with this report.
Cambridge United won the game easily with the young centre forward Chris Holroyd providing the heroics scoring a splendid goal 5 minutes before the break and a penalty in the last minute. His performances this season have been impressive enough for him to get a call up for the England C squad.
Gateshead looked out of their depth for much of the match and the consecutive promotions, including last season's play-off victory might mean that they have bitten off more than they can chew. It is still early on in the season, but it would appear that their best hopes of staying up are for another club to implode, as Chester with their 25 point deduction and Forest Green Rovers with their incredibly poor form look set for the drop and even this early on it seems that Gateshead might join them if they don't find some form soon.
Cambridge will be expecting to compete at the top of the table, but despite an emphatic 3-0 win a team with confidence would have produced so much more. The emotional scars of 2 successive play-off losses are there for all to see and yet another management change with Martin Ling taking over from Gary Brabin won't help settling the squad. I can't really see them go one better and getting back into the league at the end of this season with Oxford finally playing without a points deduction and strong Wimbledon and Luton sides in the same division. However, one silver lining is the young Chris Holroyd, who seems to be filling the boots of Scott Rendell well, after the talismanic centre forward left the Abbey for the team that defeated the Us in the play-offs, Torquay United.
That said, Cambridge at times produced some sublime football and when their passing game works it is very, very good. They had several chances to take the lead before Holroyd scored in the 40th minute. The second half was more of the same and the Cambridge defence had very little to do and on 66 minutes Andy Parkinson made it 2-0.
This obviously frustrated Gateshead as a minute later their French midfielder Pelonde dived in with a reckless challenge and was given his marching orders. Cambridge were now on cruise control and finally extended their lead to 3-0 in the last minute when Mrk Beesley's shot was handled in the area and Chris Holroy popped up to put the penalty away and end the match on a high for Cambridge.
Cambridge United won the game easily with the young centre forward Chris Holroyd providing the heroics scoring a splendid goal 5 minutes before the break and a penalty in the last minute. His performances this season have been impressive enough for him to get a call up for the England C squad.
Gateshead looked out of their depth for much of the match and the consecutive promotions, including last season's play-off victory might mean that they have bitten off more than they can chew. It is still early on in the season, but it would appear that their best hopes of staying up are for another club to implode, as Chester with their 25 point deduction and Forest Green Rovers with their incredibly poor form look set for the drop and even this early on it seems that Gateshead might join them if they don't find some form soon.
Cambridge will be expecting to compete at the top of the table, but despite an emphatic 3-0 win a team with confidence would have produced so much more. The emotional scars of 2 successive play-off losses are there for all to see and yet another management change with Martin Ling taking over from Gary Brabin won't help settling the squad. I can't really see them go one better and getting back into the league at the end of this season with Oxford finally playing without a points deduction and strong Wimbledon and Luton sides in the same division. However, one silver lining is the young Chris Holroyd, who seems to be filling the boots of Scott Rendell well, after the talismanic centre forward left the Abbey for the team that defeated the Us in the play-offs, Torquay United.
That said, Cambridge at times produced some sublime football and when their passing game works it is very, very good. They had several chances to take the lead before Holroyd scored in the 40th minute. The second half was more of the same and the Cambridge defence had very little to do and on 66 minutes Andy Parkinson made it 2-0.
This obviously frustrated Gateshead as a minute later their French midfielder Pelonde dived in with a reckless challenge and was given his marching orders. Cambridge were now on cruise control and finally extended their lead to 3-0 in the last minute when Mrk Beesley's shot was handled in the area and Chris Holroy popped up to put the penalty away and end the match on a high for Cambridge.
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