Saturday 1st August 2009 - St Ives 0-5 U's: Westwood Ho!
If you are one of the minority of U's supporters who likes to follow the team on its travels around the local non-League clubs, you will have built up a decent knowledge of them over the years. The cosiness of Mildenhall and Soham, the tidiness of Ely, the isolation of Huntingdon, the homeliness of Newmarket and Bedford, the cheery charm of City. And Histon. Hopefully we will get to sample the delights of St Neots' new home in the near future. But we never seem to play St Ives Town, less than ten miles up the A14.
So it was a pleasure to venture through twisting back lanes to Westwood Road, neat and tidy home of the Saints next to the St Ivo Indoor Leisure Centre. Like St Neots, it is clear that this is a club with ambition, inspired by the rise of our village neighbours to try to scale the same dizzy(ish) heights. But unlike St Neots, who are throwing seemingly substantial sums of money at starting their own rise quickly and immediately, St Ives appear to be rather more patient and intent on climbing through the ranks at their own, realistic pace.
It was clear from the smart officials in club blazer and tie to the memorabilia on the walls of their club room that this is a football club with standards and pride in itself. A very reasonable £4 entry fee and a sensibly priced £1 programme, colourful and substantial whose ads showed just how much backing they have from the local community and business, led the many U's away fans to a cosily enclosed venue which was a little reminiscent of Bridge Road about a decade ago, especially the row of imposing leylandii that formed a border along one side of the ground.
A rectangle of hard standing enclosed the pitch with open ends but a decent sized seated stand on one side, opposite the main clubhouse and board room on the other, where many supporters gathered to drink and socialise. A few rows of seats were attached to the outside of the latter under a shallow cover, serving as a directors' box, and, most unusually, the match was filmed by two characters who shinned up a rickety ladder and placed a couple of deckchairs precariously on the roof of the shelter.
There will clearly be considerable work required to upgrade Westwood Road as and when the club ascends the pyramid, but nothing insurmountable as long as the team does not climb too quickly, as other clubs have found to their cost in terms of facilities. To our Conference eyes, the first work needs to be done on the pitch, a rather uneven surface with grass so long it must have felt something like beach football to play on. Perhaps the club goat was still on its summer holiday in Ibiza...
With an eye on next weekend's Conference opener, Martin Ling chose a strong 4-4-2 with Chris Holroyd paired with Danny Crow up front and Andy Parkinson and Robbie Willmott on the wings, the rest of the side effectively picking itself.
The tone of the contest was set from the start, with United pressing and the hosts resisting as best they could. As the new boss promised, his side played a passing game with little or no hint of lumping aimless long balls forward. Willmott looked lively from the off and was first to ask questions of keeper Gavin Armitage with a run and shot on 5, but most of the early exchanges were outside the box as the U's patiently passed and probed, gradually getting to grips with the sapping surface.
They should, however, have been ahead on the quarter hour when Darryl Coakley whipped in a cross from deep left and Holroyd met it unchallenged but bulleted his header over the top. The hosts responded a couple of minutes later with a bouncing daisycutter from Carl Foreman which a diving Danny Potter parried, and United managed to scramble the rebound away.
Willmott looked most dangerous when he cut inside and went for goal - indeed, both wingers tended to stray infield rather than hugging the flanks but Parkinson was struggling to get a touch of the ball - and on 19 his powerful 25-yard shot was pushed away for a corner by Armitage. Holroyd was next to try, latching onto a low Willmott cross and his well-struck shot would have broken the deadlock had it not been just too near Armitage, who blocked for another flag-kick.
A goal was inevitable, though, and on 23 it finally came; again, a Willmott cut and run inside was the catalyst, and his square pass to Paul Carden was an invitation to shoot. His 20-yard blaster flew into the top left corner, possibly with the help of a small deflection, for his second ever goal in the black'n'amber. Or Cambridge blue. Quality not quantity: 1-0.
The hosts continued to play their own spirited game and Dan Moyes hit a speculative volley over the top, but United should have doubled their lead on the half hour when Jai Reason's free-kick found Wayne Hatswell and his nod into the middle was met by the head of Josh Coulson, but his close-range goalbound header lacked the power to beat the gloves of Armitage.
Dan Gleeson was next to try his luck with what is becoming a trademark swashbuckling run from deep, but his shot flew over on 35, while Potter fumbled a corner under pressure and Will Fordham claimed to have been pushed to the floor, to no interest from the ref.
Up the other end Holroyd danced clear down the left, cut inside and headed for goal along the byline, but he seemed to want to walk the ball into the net rather than shoot or cross and he was crowded out. The outstanding Willmott tested Armitage again before the break with another cut in and shot, but again the Saints keeper was equal to the challenge.
Overall it had been a satisfactory first half for the U's, with Carden adopting the deeper, covering midfield role to allow Reason to forage further forward, in turn permitting the strikers to remain in the danger zone rather than having to drop deep. Parkinson, however, had made little impact and there had not been quite enough supply from the flanks to feed the front two, where Crow in particular had never looked like scoring.
Parkinson and Holroyd were withdrawn for part two, with Mark Beesley joining Crow up front, Courtney Pitt slotting in on the left and Willmott switching to the right. And suddenly this line-up just clicked in a devastating spell of four goals within a quarter of an hour.
Beesley was the key, back to his underrated best with a display of pace, touch and subtlety. On 48 his visionary reverse through ball sent Willmott skipping through the St Ives back line down the right channel, and Robbie waited until he could see the whites of Armitage's eyes before lashing high past him from inside the six-yard box. 2-0.
Willmott, now terrorising the hosts' left flank, cut inside and blasted just over the angle on 51, but four minutes later Beesley had more luck when an astute passing move culminated in a low shot from the D which did not lack power but which Armitage really should have stopped as it scudded under him. 3-0.
Coulson was replaced by Rory McAuley on 56, and a minute later Crow gained United a free-kick when he was unceremoniously shoved to the ground 25 yards out by Dan Newman. Willmott, Reason and Pitt all stood over the ball, but it was the latter who stepped up to curl his kick over the wall; it cannoned off the underside of the bar, and as the hapless Armitage was turning to see where it had gone, it bounced off his leg and into the net. Technically an own goal, although Courtney deserved it: 4-0.
Now it was 'shoot on sight' for United against the shaken keeper, Reason testing him next and drawing a decent save. But on the hour the goal glut continued when Beesley read Pitt's long ball forward perfectly, Armitage came out to intercept and Bees clipped it neatly past him and into the gaping goal. 5-0.
The goals could not possibly have continued to pour in at this rate, but any notion of the game as a contest was now over, the hosts utterly shell-shocked by such a devastating burst. Both teams relaxed and the action, on a cloudy but humid day, began to lose momentum. To the tiring hosts, that grass must have seemed about waist high.
Carden was rested on 62 and Ben Farrell introduced, and five minutes later Gleeson ran onto a cleared corner to hammer a tremendous long-range shot into Armitage's diving arms. The wingers briefly swapped flanks and Pitt slalomed into the six-yard box only to be felled by Fordham, but ref Wilson turned down what seemed to be a convincing penalty claim.
The hosts gained a free-kick within shooting distance on 74 but Matt Bannister drifted it well over, while United were forced into one last substitution eight minutes from time when the unfortunate Farrell turned his ankle on the lush foliage. Once again reserve keeper Lawrie Walker was pressed into service as an emergency centre-forward, the younger squad members rested after having played in the Blackburn youth game last night; Crow withdrew into midfield and Walker threw himself into the job with his usual admirable gusto. Unlike against West Ham, however, he was not required to perform any miracles this time.
What was generously hailed in the programme as "... one of the biggest games in the club's history" fizzled out thereafter, but it had been a very useful runout for United's squad and hopefully St Ives' too. Ling had sensibly tailored the game to the personnel - no high balls to non-existent big target men - and if they can continue to pass with quality against the infinitely steelier opposition of Barrow next week, hope, as ever at this time of the season, springs eternal. Time to go nationwide again.
Statto Corner
United and St Ives were regular opponents before the Second World War, spending five seasons together in Division 1 of the Cambs League in the 1920s and meeting in three different cup competitions. Since the War, however, they had only met on two occasions before today.
The first was in the second qualifying round of the FA Amateur Cup on 1947-48, when United won 1-0 at the Abbey thanks to a goal from Reg Marsh.
They did not meet again until the Hunts Premier Cup Final of 1988-89, when the U's produced the same scoreline as today, a 5-0 victory at Eynesbury Rovers' ground. It was nominally a first team fixture, but United fielded a mixture of youngsters and trialists, plus then reserve team manager Gary Johnson. Lee Philpott and Colin Vowden eventually graduated to the first team, while at right-back Cambridge University student Steve Palmer did not gain a professional contract at the Abbey but went on enjoy a distinguished career at Ipswich Town, Watford and Q.P.R.
At left-back was trialist Chris Zoricich, a New Zealander who had previously played for the colourfully-named Papatoetoe in his native land. He did not make the grade at United either, but went on to gain 57 caps for his country in a varied career that took in Leyton Orient, Welling, Chelsea (reserves), Newcastle United (the Australian one) and an assortment of other Aussie and English non-League clubs, having returned to Blighty because his English wife was homesick.
United's goals were scored by two more trialists, Pat O'Keefe (hat-trick) and Steve Snow (two penalties); their football careers could not have been more different. O'Keefe's Football League record consists of one substitute appearance for his home town club, Peterborough United in the 1985-86 season, and thereafter it was non-League all the way with Corby, Eynesbury and Deeping Rangers. His most recent job was as assistant manager at Eynesbury, but both he and manager Al Lenihan resigned at the end of last season.
Steve Snow was a young American striker who had already become a full USA international at the age of seventeen before trying his hand in Europe. A record-breaking high school 'soccer' career saw him score in 49 consecutive games for Hoffman Estates High School, and after his unsuccessful trial at the Abbey he returned to Indiana University before signing for Belgium's Standard Liege.
Although he never made the first team there, his international career flourished, becoming top scorer for the States when they won gold at the 1991 Pan American Games, then firing eleven goals in nine games to help the USA qualify for the 1992 Olympics. Alongside Snow, their squad included such future well-known names as Brad Friedel, Cobi Jones, Alexi Lalas, Claudio Reyna, Joe-Max Moore and Ian Feuer.
US coach Lothar Osiander was quoted as calling Snow 'a cocky twerp' - he concentrated solely on scoring goals and was not particularly interested in tracking back - as evinced by Snow's quote from the time: "I think I'm one of Lothar's smarter players. I always know what I'm going to do with the ball before I get it. The only important thing in soccer is scoring. My role is to score."
Osiander controversially dropped him from the first Finals game with Italy, which they approached defensively and lost. Snow was furious, saying "This team cannot play at all without me. This team wouldn't be here without me. I scored 9 of our 17 goals during the [final] qualifying round. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Our coach just didn't think we could win against Italy." His colleagues seemed to agree, and Snow was reinstated for a win and a draw, scoring in both matches, but they failed to make it past the group stages and Osiander was sacked.
Back in club football, Snow moved to Belgian Second Division outfit K Boom, but after scoring three times in his first seven games, he received the knee injury which was to finish his career. He returned to the States for surgery and later resumed his career in indoor soccer with Chicago Power, but the knee finally forced his retirement in 1996 at the age of 25. He proceeded to open a pizza parlour in Indianapolis, perhaps wondering what might have happened if he had become a regular at Cambridge United back in 1989. I wonder if he still has his Hunts Premier Cup winner's medal?
Player Ratings
Potter 7. Not exactly over-stretched.
Gleeson 7. Comfortable workout to round off an excellent pre-season for Glees.
Coulson 7. Assured 56 minutes should see him ready for the big kick-off next week.
Hatswell 7. Always in command.
Coakley 7. Has not put a foot wrong so far and a league debut now beckons.
Parkinson 6. Disappointingly anonymous for most of the time as the game just seemed to go on around him.
Carden 8. Most important role in the team, conducting the midfield from deep and breaking up opposition attacks.
Reason 8. Played a more advanced role while Carden swept up behind him and looked all the better for it.
Willmott 8. Hard-working menace who terrorised the home defence throughout.
Crow 6. Spent more time than usual up front where a striker should be, but unfortunately never looked like scoring.
Holroyd 7. Good running and several exciting runs in his 45 minutes.
Beesley 8. Looked back to near his best with a performance of awareness, pace and intelligence. Oh, and goals.
Pitt 7. Not quite as effective as against Liverpool, but looked dangerous and would surely offer the side greater balance if he starts on the left.
McAuley 7. Never looked remotely troubled.
Farrell 7. Quite lively until forced off after only twenty minutes.
Walker 6. Supersub didn't quite have the same impact as in the West Ham match, but this time the team was already 5-0 up. Wholehearted effort.
Match Summary
A useful runout in ankle-deep grass was enlivened by a dizzy spell of four goals in thirteen entertaining minutes. Looks like we're about as ready as we're going to be.
Man of the Match
Robbie Willmott. Outstanding attacking force who also worked back for the team as needed.
Ref Watch
Wilson 7. Nicely unobtrusive, having a quiet word when needed.
Soundtrack of the Day
The Joy Formidable 'Whirring'
Andrew Bennett
Andrew's previous match reports
More Match Photos
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