Abbey United FC is a group of fans that play against other fans' teams around the country in friendly games, usually on Saturday mornings. Here are the reports of their last two outings.
Northampton Town Supporters Club 3 Abbey United 0
A free Saturday led to Abbey United taking the short trip over to Northampton for our first ever visit to their supporters side, who we have hosted regularly in our annual summer tournaments in recent years.
The Abbey United management team took a leaf out of Fabio Capello's book, as we were willing to change tactics at half time as the system we started with was proving ineffective. Sadly, the changes were too, so we changed again. And again. Partly to get the performance going a bit, and partly to give everyone who travelled a decent amount of time on the pitch. The matches we play are always roll on, roll off subs, so sometimes there can be a bit of confusion.
We started with a traditional 4-4-2 system with Jamie Nightingale playing in goal. Veteran Anton returned to the squad after some time away from the scene (I suspect this is due to the authoritative manner of the previous management regime). Harry came in up front for his debut and Cristophe made a debut on the right wing. Neal came in for his first game of the season to partner Harry upfront. At last, two people who call themselves strikers. And a proper goalkeeper. What could possibly go wrong...?
The squad was as follows:
GK: Jamie Nightingale, RB: Andy Lang, LB: Richard French, CB: Mark Bentley, CB: Mark Case, CM: James Barringer, CM: Frankie Fry, LW: James Denton, RW: Cristophe Demoulin, FW: Harry Weller, FW: Neal Suckling. Subs: Anton Thacker, Pete Parnwell, George Blackwell.
Being 2-0 down after 25 minutes, that's what can go wrong. A ball over the top caused our less than pacy back four all sorts of problems for both goals as the strikers were left with relatively easy finishes. We hadn't played that badly really. We had showed signs of picking up after the new team came together at Mansfield and the thrashing we got against Millwall (aka East London Youth Teams XI). We knocked the ball around nicely at times, and were talking much more. The main difference was that Northampton had been playing together for a while, and it was the sort of performance we will be capable of if we can keep this set of lads together. We went in at half time 2-0 down, but content as we had the wind to play with in the second half.
We made some formation changes in the second half, and went to a 3-5-2 system. Mark C, George and Pete making up the back three with Andy and James Denton playing on the left wing. Richard, Frankie and Mark B played in midfield with Neal and Harry remaining up front.
The changes made us more solid and we were not getting beaten so easily through the middle, however, we still lacked up anything major up front. Just as the management team were discussing the possibility of going to 3-4-3, Northampton went 3-0 up after around an hour. I would love to describe the goal to you, but I wasn't watching as I was looking round wondering how to change it around again.
Anyway, we made the changes, they didn't really work and nothing much else happened. We managed a shot on goal that went high and wide, although it was a difficult chance. Annoyingly, we found out that their keeper was awful and any shots on target may go in. Still, if you don't buy a ticket...
Overall, it was a decent defensive performance, but we need to work on supporting the front players (and then chasing back afterwards!!!) so that we can have more chances to score. We communicated well, and honourable mentions must go to George on debut, Mark B, especially giving midfield a bit of strength, and Pete (sorry... Badger) on his outfield debut.
FINAL SCORE 3-0
Match Attendance: 18, two dogs and a guy with a guitar who must have decided that playing us a tune as we trudged off to the changing rooms after the match might help - the attendance, probably an Abbey United record!
Mark Case
Then, on Sunday 19th October, Abbey United were invited to take part in the '1-in-4 in the City' football tournament, held at Cambridge City FC. As part of the '1-in-4 in the City' campaign, Cambridge City Football Club joined forces with the local mental health charity Cam-mind, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and Cambridgeshire Community Services to host a five-a-side football tournament for local employers.
Abbey United performed much better than in recent weeks, winning three of our four group matches before faltering right at the last.
The squad was as follows:
GK: Jamie Nightingale, CB: Richard French, CB: Will Horner, CM: Ben Phillips, CM: Craig Harding, FW: Jamie Bates, CB: Shane Lennon.
The tournament was graced by the appearance of former England captain and footballing legend David Beckham*. All the teams posed for photos with David before the matches (and the photos will follow in a later match report). David even came over to us after our first game and asked if he could play for us, but sadly, the organisers wouldn't allow this. *well a pretty good look-a-like anyway!
Abbey United played in the opening fixture of the tournament against a team from Addenbrookes. With the game goal-less and entering the final seconds, Abbey United counterattacked and a long throw out from Jamie in goal sent Jamie B clear and he slotted the ball through the keepers legs. Final score, 1-0.
Next up, Abbey United found themselves in a match against a side representing Marshalls. This game was much more open than our first, but again Abbey United managed a 1-0 win, this time a much more lucky goal as Will turned to shoot mid-way inside the opponent's half and mishit the shot - but as we all turned back to concentrate on defending, the ball spun underneath the goalkeeper and into the goal. Will didn't see it go in, and didn't believe he'd scored at first, but he had. We won the game 1-0.
Realising we were sitting top of our group (albeit joint top) we knew we had a chance of reaching the final, and our third match was against the host team representing the 1-in-4 campaign. Abbey United won this match 2-0, with a goal a piece for Jamie Bates and Ben Phillips.
This led us onto our final match against a side representing Jagex. We knew we only needed a draw to win the group, but although we'd not conceded a goal throughout the tournament until this point, we went behind after five seconds. This was our toughest match and there were chances at either end but with three minutes left, their keeper gave the ball away from a clearance straight to Jamie Bates who made no mistake.
We just needed to hold on but were still pushing forward, and then with no more than 20 seconds to go the unthinkable happened as we conceded again. There was no chance to get an equaliser and we lost 2-1. The defeat left us on nine points, with Jagex winning the group on 10 points with that last minute win. Most the team went straight over to the burger van at this point, as we'd been good and stayed away up until this point. All in all, we performed better than we'd probably expected to, and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon out.
Richard French
Go to www.abbeyunited.co.uk to learn more about the team.
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