Cambridge United 1 Reading 0

 So Thursday night football was followed up by Monday night football as Cambridge took on Reading at the Abbey in front of the Sky cameras. The atmosphere and the performance by the Us definitely went up a level for this game.

Both teams managed to get plenty of shots off, but Cambridge were the better team in the first half. Liam Bennet as an attacking right back with Liam Brophy just in front of him caused all sorts of problems for Reading in their left hand side. However, the Us as a whole sometimes lacked accuracy with passes in the final third and the Royals' goalkeeper, David Button was an experienced head at the back who oozed confidence and helped organise the defence to stay solid at the back. Cambridge had the lion's share of chances in the first half, but it was Reading who came closest to opening the scoring when ex-U Harvey Knibbs left Digby and Ryan Bennet tied up before a last minute tackle by Liam Bennet rescued what would have been a certain goal. There was still work to be done defensively though and Michael Morrison and Will Mannion finally had the ball safe.

Despite creating what was the biggest chance in the first half, Cambridge continued to be the dominant force in the second half and created chance after chance. Reading seemed happy to sit back and just hope for a break that didn't look like it was going to come. They also got more cynical as the game went on and two tackles from behind that could have easily been reds were shown and John-Kiymani Gordon even had his hair pulled after going past one defender,  but that went unpunished mainly because the Us played on.

Talking of John-Kiymani Gordon, a player who joined just this week on loan from Crystal Palace, it was the introduction of him, Fejiri Okenabirhie and Elias Kachunga  in the 72nd minute that led to the breakthrough. Lankester and  Ahadme at this point were starting to huff and puff a bit and Sullay Kaikai was starting to drift, but the fresh impetus really paid dividends. Reading really couldn't deal with the pace of these three. On 83 minutes Brophy set Okenabirhie up for what was to be the winner.

In stoppage time Reading thought they had what would have been an undeserved equaliser when the ball looked to have crossed the goal line. However, to me it looked like there were also a couple of fouls in the box on Cambridge defenders and on Will Mannion in goals and fortunately the linesman agreed. 

Us win!






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