Andrew Bennett reviews last season, continuing with the month of February 2009.
February 2009: "He's gone to Sainsbury's to buy his tea"
Sunday 1st February 2009: Rushden & Diamonds 1-2 Cambridge United (BSP)
Scorers: Smith 42, Holroyd 21(pen), Bolland 88 | Att. 2,058 (away 1,020) | League position: 3rd
Points behind Burton Albion: 18
Sunday was no day of rest for the United team or its fantastic supporters, who supplied half of the attendance at Nene Park, a venue which has provided much drama for the U's in the last few years. With Rendell, Tonkin and McMahon all injured, Brabin returned to the wing-back system that had been such a success against Woking, then abandoned; this time Gleeson and Pitt were the wide men, Carden and Challinor the engine room, and Beesley was in the hole behind Crow and Holroyd, with Willmott benched.
The U's dominated the early proceedings against the nondescript hosts and when Crow was pushed to the ground by Chris Pope in the box, Holroyd stepped up to smash the penalty home. Snow began to fall as United kept up the pressure, but they blotted their copybook by conceding an equaliser just before the interval when Sam Smith fired home despite Bolland's close attentions.
The system was tweaked for part two, Pitt stationed further forward to form a 4-3-3, but as a blizzard started the hosts enjoyed the first real spell of pressure of their own. United, however, weathered both storms, and on 65 withdrew the disappointing Beesley and introduced Willmott for the third formation of the day, 4-4-2.
A shot from Challinor hit the foot of the post against his old club, but as play ebbed and flowed, the contest looked like petering out into a draw until two minutes from the end; Pitt arrowed a cross into the box and there was Bolland, stooping to guide a pinpoint header low into the net from twelve yards for his first goal in black and amber. The celebrations were joyful to say the least; it was United's first away win in the league since Eastbourne in August.
Brabin was content: "It was a bit of a relief for me that we got an away victory in the league, which has been well documented. I didn't really think about it too much but Setanta have never shut up about it, but every time we've been away from home the support has been different class. It was no different today and it was really emotional in the last five minutes when Phil Bolland scored that goal and every single one of the players - and I think even Danny Potter - was up there with the crowd. It was brilliant and I hope we can have a few more of them between now and the end of the season."
There were two departures on transfer deadline day. Gavin Hoyte left by mutual consent after failing to force his way into Brabin's selection: "He's been an absolute pleasure to work with and I thought he might have kicked on a bit by stepping into full-time football, but we just wanted a bit more from him that we weren't to get."
Felino Jardim was also freed, having not quite lived up to his early promise: "I wanted more from Felino, as I do from all my wide men, and with Courtney coming back from his injury and getting fitter and stronger all the time, I could see Felino falling that bit further behind in the pecking order."
Rory McAuley, however, was rewarded for some excellent displays with his first 18-month professional contract. He had been released by Jimmy Quinn in April 2008 but the youth department had believed in his potential and offered him a twelve-month extension to his scholarship. Said Jez George: "The Gaffer gives all our young players the belief that if you are good enough you will get a chance, and the improved links with the first team since his arrival have given our scheme, and particularly the scholars, a massive boost.'
The inclement weather was causing fixture problems, and when Kidderminster's FA Trophy match at York due on the 3rd was postponed, there was debate as to whether United's fixture at Aggborough would have to be moved, but eventually York agreed to play the Harriers two days after United.
Jez George was appointed to the Board as Director of Youth Football. Mr Chairman commented, "We see youth development as a key element of the future of the football club and we are fortunate to have one of the finest people in that field running our youth set-up."
Josh Coulson's fine performances when he could get into the United team bore fruit when he was called up to the England 'C' standby squad for a friendly away to Malta Under-21s to be played on the 17th.
Midfielder Jai Reason arrived at the Abbey on trial from Ipswich Town on the recommendation of their boss Jim Magilton, having undertaken a similar spell at York earlier in the season. He would just be training for a week or two then would be assessed from there. As Brabin put it, "We're just having a little look at each other..."
Lifelong supporter and much-respected President of the Supporters' Club, Doug Thurston, passed away at the age of eighty.
On the 9th United's game at Kidderminster was called off on the evening of the game, too late for many who had made the journey from Cambridge and other parts, with a waterlogged pitch and the prospect of more rain to come. It was provisionally rearranged for the 17th, as long as they managed to stage their game with York on the 11th, and they did, going on to lose 13-12 on penalties.
Jai Reason made his stay official by signing on a month's loan, but would have to wait for any debut: United's home game with Mansfield on Valentine's Day also fell victim to the weather after a 4.15pm inspection on the Friday. Despite the scholars having cleared the pitch of snow, it was still waterlogged and the match was rearranged for the 10th of March.
Those scholars had already been earning their crusts; CRC was awarded Ridgeons Team of the Month, having won their last seven matches in league and cup, and only lost one and drawn one of their last fifteen.
Tuesday 17th February 2009: Kidderminster Harriers 1-3 Cambridge United (BSP)
Scorers: Barnes-Homer 38, Rendell 20(pen), Holroyd 31,55 | Att. 1,361 (att. 161) | League position: 3rd
Points behind Burton Albion: 21
After that extra-time penalties defeat by York, Kidderminster had lost lifelessly at home to bottom team Northwich at the weekend, so the portents were good for United's first win at Aggborough in almost 50 years; and the cameras were there to record it.
Tinkerman Brabin made four changes from the Rushden game, only one enforced with Crow's suspension for five yellows. Out went Pitt, Challinor and Coulson, in came Rendell, McMahon and Tonkin, plus Reason was handed a swift debut. The formation of choice was 4-3-1-2 with Beesley linkman behind Rendell and Holroyd.
A tired-looking Harriers looked as though harrying was the last thing on their minds, and a dynamic United looked most impressive with the new midfield unit of Carden, Reason and McMahon in full control. The team's pace and power was rewarded when Rendell charged down keeper Bartlett's attempted clearance, and in the ensuing melee was bundled to the ground by Keith Lowe. Rendell himself converted the penalty with aplomb.
The U's continued to impress and doubled their lead ten minutes later, Reason's exquisite through ball setting up Rendell for a powerful shot which was superbly stopped by Bartlett, but Holroyd was following up to bicycle kick into the empty net.
The hosts reminded us of their hoodoo, however, when they pulled one back with their first shot of the match, Matthew Barnes-Homer galloping into the box to fire home Ferrell's lay-off. Kiddie enjoyed a brief revival, but come the second half, United resumed as they had started the first, and within ten minutes of the restart Holroyd had bundled home Gleeson's cross to restore their two-goal cushion.
Bartlett denied Holroyd his hat-trick with a fine save on 74, and the quicksilver U's striker missed an unmarked header near the end, too, but ultimately United ran out comfortable and deserved winners for a rare TV win and an even rarer one at Aggborough; perhaps their best all-round performance of the season so far.
Brabin was, naturally, pleased: "We worked hard as a team and everyone to a man was outstanding. Even though Paul Carden deserved his Man of the Match award I think there were a few out there who could have got it - they worked really hard."
On the knotty subject of tactics, he opined, "I do put a lot of thought into games. I think people think I tinker with things just for the sake of it but I don't. I think about the games and the players we've got, and I like to work with the players every day and see what sort of form they're in, and that can be the deciding factor on a matchday."
Kiddie manager Mark Yates was as downbeat as a particularly depressed Eeyore: "We got beat by a better team. They were far better than us and we're massively disappointed with ourselves, particularly in the second half... I don't criticise my players, and one or two are a bit low on confidence, but it was like men against boys in the second half."
Burton Albion went nineteen points clear at the top with a 2-1 win over Wrexham and Blue Square announced that they would be paying out on bets for them to be league champions. By now genial gentleman Roy McFarland had taken over from Derby-bound Nigel Clough, and his first signing had been another Abbey legend, Martin Butler.
Brabin commented, "It was a tough game and one or two were feeling the effects, but there are players waiting in the wings and chomping at the bit to get back in the side... I can see us moving forward now. If I was Burton Albion manager, then I wouldn't accept we'd won the league. So we're not going to lay down and die and we've got to set out to win every single game. That's how we have to prepare.
"Burton have done fantastic this season and they're up there where they belong, but they've still got a bit more work to do and we've got to concentrate on ourselves. If we keep playing to our potential then we should be there or thereabouts and I'm confident we can have a serious effect on the promotion race this year."
The TV people stuck their oar in again and moved another U's Saturday game to Monday night, this time Woking away at the end of March.
Saturday 21st February 2009: Lewes 0-2 Cambridge United (BSP)
Scorers: Rendell 83(pen), Willmott 87 | Att. 962 (away: c.450 - unsegregateed) | League position: 3rd
Points behind Burton Albion: 18
Undoubtedly the most enjoyable awayday of the season was on an unseasonably warm, sunny winter's day in the beautiful Sussex town of Lewes: welcoming pubs, its own local brew (Harveys), friendly locals and a truly unique, characterful football ground in The Dripping Pan. Set into a hollow in the ground, no-one knows how it got its name, but its rustic charm, lack of segregation and huge grassy bank topped by a walkway and viewing gallery backing onto an ancient flint wall made a delightful change from the dilapidated rust-buckets and anonymous sheds that we were used to visiting.
Unfortunately it looked like Lewes' stay in the BSP would be a short one; they had failed to win any of their first eleven games, and had lost eleven of their last twelve, and bucket collections were being taken while their electronic scoreboard stood forlornly blankly in the corner, stuck permanently on 3.22.
Brabin saw no need to tinker this time, naming an unchanged starting XI, but strangely the team's urgency and fluency was missing. Was there perhaps a hint of complacency? Lewes worked diligently and slowed the game down to their pace, and United huffed and puffed with little inspiration or energy, most of their goal efforts off target.
The visitors finally began to build up some sort of head of steam in the last half hour, not coincidentally after an out-of-touch Beesley had been replaced by Willmott and United went to 4-4-2, McMahon on the left wing before he too was replaced by Pitt.
Time was running out, however, and it was something of a relief when Carden surged for goal and tumbled under the challenge of Anthony Barness. Rendell sent the keeper the wrong way to get his team's noses in front. Lewes, for all their spirit, did not have the quality to respond, and Willmott wrapped up the points with a close-range header from a Pitt corner.
Brabin was pleased with the result: "I was delighted with our whole attitude. It does get a bit frustrating, but you've got to be patient and I was delighted that we kept going and got the win in the end."
Elsewhere, Weymouth had gone into meltdown with the departure of almost all of their contracted players, and it fell to United's own Jordan Collins to captain what was little more than a youth team to a confidence-sapping 9-0 home defeat by Rushden. Those teams still to play the Terras rubbed their hands at the prospect of three easy points; United were not one of them.
There was good news at the Abbey where Andy Parkinson made his comeback for CRC in a 3-0 win over Woodbridge Town.
In what seemed like a record-breaking season for rearranged fixtures, United's game at Stevenage due on Saturday 14th March was moved to Tuesday 7th April due to the hosts' continued involvement in the FA Trophy.
Jai Reason had made an impressive entrance to first team football, and he hoped to extend his stay at the Abbey: "I love it, and I'm back enjoying my football again. It makes a difference every week actually working to get into the first team, whereas at Ipswich I was in the reserves and not really pushing on so this is a great opportunity for me... I'm loving it every day in training, the gaffer and everyone here are great, and it's a great club. They are helping me with my football, and it's exactly what I needed."
The match at Histon at the beginning of March was changed to pay on the day. In a thrilling warm-up to the big local derby, Marvin The Moose beat the Histon Hound in BBC Radio Cambs' pancake race. News? We've got it.
Jez George and Matt Walker's heroic walk from Torquay began, featuring on Soccer AM from where Max Rushden creditably accompanied them for all 22 miles of the first leg to Exeter. All last-day BSP matches were moved from Saturday 25th April to 4pm on the Sunday for TV coverage, which was perhaps a decision that could have been arrived at in July.
Tuesday 24th February 2009: Grays Athletic 0-1 Cambridge United (BSP)
Scorer: Rendell 42 | Att. 754 (away 347) | League position: 3rd
Points behind Burton Albion: 15
Grays were another small club with a quirky ground and precarious finances, having released manager Wayne Burnett for monetary reasons and sporting so many new signings that three did not even have their names on the backs of their shirts. For United, the 4-3-1-2 system was retained but McMahon was dropped in favour of Challinor, while Crow returned from suspension to man the bench.
Reason and Holroyd impressed in a decent start for the visitors, then the hosts gradually began to respond, inspired by mercurial winger Ishmael Welsh. It was United, however, who stole the lead just before half-time when Reason's drive into the box was stabbed to Rendell by Tony Dinning, and Scott notched his third goal in as many games with a cool finish.
Grays responded well after the restart, though, and Potter had to be on top form to palm away a Welsh shot and an Andy Pugh bullet header. Their cause was not helped when left-back George Beavan regretted a silly first-half booking for kicking the ball away when he received a second one on the hour for an unpleasant foul on Gleeson.
That seemed to knock the stuffing out of them and United regained the advantage, Dinning sprinting to hack his own potential own-goal off the line, and Arnold tipping a Challinor scudder just round the post, although Kenny Davis missed a good chance to equalise late on. But United had secured an efficient if hardly thrill-packed fourth consecutive victory to cement their playoff push.
Afterwards Brabin had praise for goalscorer Rendell and the squad: "Scott is enjoying scoring goals for us and all round I think we're working hard and getting our just rewards. I've got lads on the bench who are working hard and chomping at the bit to get in the side and it's a team effort."
CRC won 3-1 at Mildenhall to reach their first Cambs Invitation Cup final with two goals from Adam Marriott and a Blaine Hudson penalty, while Parky's loan to them was extended by a month, subject to a 24 hour recall clause.
Saturday 28th February 2009: Cambridge United 1-1 Crawley Town (BSP)
Scorers: Pitt 82, Shaw 34 | Att. 3,231 (away 69) | League position: 3rd
Points behind Burton Albion: 15
The starting line-up remained unchanged save for the recall of McMahon for Challinor, and the Amber Army were pleased to see that Mr Malcolm remained in the Crawley team so that they could boo him unmercifully for his previous theatricals.
The match started as uninspiringly as you would expect from a game against Crawley, who played their usual snapping, snarling pressing game while the yellow cards blossomed like fast-forward daffodils and the customary bellowing of wounded wildebeeste issued forth from the away dugout.
Both sides flashed shots wide and the visitors' Danny Forrest committed two bookable fouls in the first half-hour but was, inevitably, let off the second one before Crawley scored a goal in keeping with the scrappy nature of proceedings so far: Malcolm floated a hopeful cross into the box, Potter dashed from goal and totally misjudged the flight, and jumping in front of him, Jon Shaw got the merest of touches with his head to send it sailing into the empty net.
Uninspired United struggled to respond, and a fairly dismal first half ended with six names in the book, four from the visitors. Two of Brabin's underachievers, McMahon and Beesley, were removed at half-time in favour of wingmen Willmott and Pitt and it was conventional 4-4-2 for the second 45.
The U's were a bit livelier than before, but the match continued to flow like quick-drying cement, littered with stoppages and eventually three more bookings for the visitors. The hosts, however, were the only ones interested in playing football, and they reaped their reward inside the last ten minutes when Hatswell was fouled just outside the box by Weymouth escapee Santos Gaia, and Pitt stepped up to curl a quite brilliant free-kick over the wall and into the top corner.
And United could have won it in added time were it not for the reflexes of keeper Simon Rayner, as he stopped first Hatswell's point-blank header from a corner, then Willmott's shot at the far post. Thankfully that would be the last we would see of Crawley this season.
Brabin was fairly philosophical: "It just seemed to be foul after foul after foul... You have to be patient - that's the team that's won four wins on the bounce so you can't change things too much. We've had a lot of success with that while our wingers have been chomping at the bit so we had that as a back-up, but our plan was to contain them for maybe an hour and then we knew we had the wingers to come on, who have been exceptional in training. We had to put them on a little bit earlier then we thought, because we were chasing the game a bit, and it's proved to be the right decision."
That nice Mr Evans thought he should have had a penalty. Listen to the master at work: "It's not a good point today - that is the worst decision not to give a team a penalty and you can quote this word for word. The worst decision I've seen not to give a side a penalty in ten years. I have met seven or eight of their players coming off who have shook my hands because it has been a fantastic game. We were on top first half, they were on top second half, and Potter, Gleeson, Hatswell, Bolland, Carden, everyone said it was a stonewall penalty...
"But we are Crawley. Do you think he would have given Cambridge the penalty? It would have been nailed on; he couldn't wait to give Cambridge the free-kick they scored from. That was great execution, not a free-kick. That's the difference in the game…You know when the home players walk off the pitch and you say to them 'that was a penalty' and they tell you to **** off. Well, not one of the Cambridge players said that. They said the words - and I'll use Danny Potter - 'That was a stonewaller, not given.' The referee is in a perfect position to see it and I suggest he would have given it to Cambridge today.
"We had to take Danny Forrest off one minute into the second half because the referee told me in the tunnel at half-time the number 7 was going to get sent off... You know people don't want us to be in the playoffs; staff att the Football Conference don't want us in there... Simon Rayner made some good saves for us late on, but he's made the odd ricket in his time, as did Danny Potter for our goal. He went walkabout - he's gone to Sainsbury's to buy his tea! Saying that, he's a great goalkeeper but that proves any keeper can make a ricket."
By the way... it was never a penalty.
Andrew Bennett
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