"To all intents and purposes this is Cambridge United reserves".
These were the words to greet our team at Debenham LC in their match day programme. Remarks on their website also showed how much they missed the point, stating that we play in CUFC kit, play at CUFC's ground, arrive in a CUFC minibus and fixtures are confirmed to a CUFC e-mail address.
I am a little unsure, apart from the fact that in winning some matches with a team of Under 19's (plus our OAP keeper!), why there is a sudden opposition to our team. At no point did we ever hide our links to CUFC when we were kindly allowed by the AGM in June 2006 to replace Cambridge City Reserves in the Premier Division. In fact, I openly state that we are a team with the primary aim of developing young footballers for Cambridge United.
When we arrived at CUFC in the summer of 2006, we set up a separate company to run the youth scheme so it would not be a financial burden to the club. Cambridge United Youth Development Ltd is just that; a separate legal entity to CUFC, with its own directors, company secretary, constitution etc. Our accounts are filed at Companies House and, in the absence of our well documented lack of FA or Football League funding, we struggle annually to break even. Last year, with £45k raised by our Walk and the follow up Legends Match, we kept our heads above water.
The pinnacle of our youth pyramid is the scholarship scheme, which forms our team in the Ridgeons League, CRC. This is linked to CUFC as the aim of all our players within the youth system is to earn a professional contract and play in Cambridge United's first team. Therefore, just in the same way as CUYD is based at CUFC and wears the badge but is separate company to CUFC, then CRC is a separate standalone club to CUFC. We have autonomy on team selection and have two senior players this year with no current links to CUFC in Lewis Carr (CUYD coach and ex-Scholar) and Martin Davies (CUYD GK coach).
We are not a reserve team in any intents and purposes as the likes of Lee Phillips, Jon Challinor, Ben Farrell, Josh Coulson, Andy Parkinson, Courtney Pitt and Mark Beesley, who have spent much of their time on the bench this season, cannot play for CRC as they are contracted players with CUFC. Therefore, CRC can also play in the FA Vase and gain promotion through the non league pyramid, unlike reserve teams.
Hopefully this clarifies the position for everyone.
In previous years we have been able to keep FA Youth Cup weeks free from CRC fixtures as we made no bones about the fact that many of the same players appear for both teams. Unfortunately, in the current climate, this is no longer possible. This means that two weeks ago we faced four games in eight days and a similar scenario will unfold this week.
We are just grateful to Mildenhall Town for kindly agreeing to push our fixture back 24 hours to Wednesday so that we did not have to be in two venues at once on Tuesday! A big thank you to Simon Charlton, Martin Tuck and Brian Hensby. I think the old "reserve" team tag makes defeats a lot easier to swallow than describing your conquerors as a "youth" team, but people should really look at the facts before drawing their conclusions.
Anyway, on a poor surface on Saturday we scored with our first attack (Maz again doing the business from close range), survived an immediate scare as their only clear cut chance in the first half was headed wide and then defended stoutly to an aerial bombardment down the slope. At the other end, Berry headed over and Hughes was denied by their keeper.
After the break, we managed to keep our hosts more at arm's length but rarely looked like increasing our lead. It was a war of attrition and we knew the value of our opening goal. Martin Davies did pull off one fantastic save from a well struck free kick but otherwise our goal was rarely threatened.
With 15 minutes remaining, we put the result beyond doubt. Maz reacted first to a ricochet in the box from a half cleared corner and volleyed home. His conversion rate was perfect: two chances, two goals.
The game petered out in the closing stages and although we could and should have played more football, we showed a professional attitude to see the game out with a clean sheet. This was a resilient display against a dangerous and direct side that I would imagine will enjoy a good home record.
Back to Cambridge now on our Cambridge United (Youth Development if you look hard enough) minibus!
Team:
Davies, Thorpe (Bevan 45), Coakley, Carr, Hudson, Hughes, Eades, Berry, Bailey, Marriott, Bennett (Johnson 75).
