CRC 5 Dereham Town 3
Any regular readers of this column would concur that we have high expectations of our young players and are rarely satisfied. The first half on Saturday, especially a purple patch of 25 minutes, showed why as we produced the best sustained period of attacking football in any match since we arrived at Cambridge United. The players set new standards, showed the enormity of their potential, and put a very good top six side to the sword, with five goals and a missed penalty in this quarter of the game. And Adam Marriott was simply unplayable.
Why or how it happened will be cause for thought and analysis because everything we talk about going forward, and everything missing from the second half display against Wisbech Town, all came to fruition. We had the crowd on the edge of their seats or on their feet and it is only a shame that so few were there to witness our scintillating football and in particular, Adam Marriott's first goal. There won't be a finer strike at the Trade Recruitment Stadium all season.
The goal rush was initiated by a tremendous inswinging delivery from Jack Eades at a wide free kick and the presence of Blaine Hudson, who caused his marker to glance the ball beyond the stranded visiting keeper. From that moment, a surge of electricity seemed to galvanise the team as we played with a pace and tempo that would have blown away any opposition in this league.
Jack Eades and Jordan Patrick came off their lines to cause havoc on either flank, Sam Parkinson and Perry Bowe exploited the space by overlapping to great effect, Luke Berry and Sam Ives drove with authority from midfield to initiate a constant wave of attacks and our front two of Adam Marriott and Brad Hunter pulled their back four all over the place with great movement and awareness. The fact that our remaining two outfield players, Lewis Carr and Blaine Hudson, hardly touched the ball in this period speaks volumes for our dominance.
The goals were in keeping with our play. Marriott's first was simply sublime. He turned from his withdrawn position off the front, drove inside on his left foot and using the approaching defender as a screen, curled a ferocious shot with the outside of his right foot into the top corner. It was a simply magnificent goal. His second was a cool finish following brilliant approach play on the right. Adam dummied the goalkeeper, defender and then picked his spot from 8 yards.
Brad Hunter's goal also owed much to Marriott. A one-two, which involved Maz lifting the ball over the onrushing defender before sliding a pass in Brad's path, was finished with a low drive from 12 yards. The fifth followed a partially cleared corner. The Marriott master class now involved a Cruyff turn and 25-yard chip that struck the bar and the alert Lewis Carr was on hand to convert the rebound.
Our play had everything. We played with freedom and were innovative, exciting and full of confidence. It showed the true ability and potential of these players. We had talked on Thursday and Friday about how functional we had looked against Wisbech and showed the players on the training pitch how we could create movement and probe spaces round the box rather than hitting 'fight' balls into the area. It is one thing to show them and another thing to make it happen though and the players must take all the credit for translating this information into a performance of this quality.
The only negative aspect of the afternoon was our failure to see out the first half and then through a mixture of renewed spirit from our visitors and our inexperience, the second half became scrappy and nervous when it should have been a stroll. On 44 minutes we were 5-0 and Brad Hunter was about to take a penalty to score our sixth. Their keeper made a comfortable save and moments later we let our guard slip. One missed tackle in midfield, no cover, failure to stop the cross and statuesque defending in our six yard box. 5-1 rather than 6-0 should have made no difference but with the penalty miss and such a sloppy goal, the momentum had changed slightly so the start of the second half would have more importance than it appeared one minute earlier.
It sounds daft, but in these situations, it is an easier half time for the manager of the losing team. We have never been 5-1 up at the interval before but from being on the other end of a similar score-line on a few occasions in the past, I knew that Matt Henman would get a reaction from his team. We stressed to our players that we had to match their commitment to maintain our ascendancy but we allowed Dereham to get on the front foot and if a third goal had quickly followed their second on the hour, it would have caused a nervous finale. As it was we rarely looked threatened and two counterattacks should have brought our sixth.
Firstly Nick Davey struck a post from an Adam Marriott pass and then Perry Bowe shot inches wide following a break by Darryl Coakley. A last minute consolation slightly took the gloss off the score but it was the 25 minutes of champagne football that will live in the memory. The players will now understand why we set such high standards. We know that you cannot always play to this level but if you always strive to achieve this level, every day in training and in every match, it will happen more often. We can strive to maintain it for longer and eventually our levels will improve. Considering the age of our team and the fact that we now have 18 points from 9 games, just think what could then be achieved.
Team:
Mace, Bowe, Parkinson, Carr, Hudson, Ives, Eades, Berry, Hunter (Davey 70), Marriott, Patrick (Coakley 75)
Jez George
Head of Youth Development
