Chilled, not frozen, out in Fenland - Part 2

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 13/11/2010 (Last updated: 21/04/2014)

NOBODY made any substitutions at half time but Town had clearly been told to up the tempo. Coulson drove Town forward and saw his shot blocked and Connell went close.

This was a whole lot better than the first half because Town were much more direct and, of course, it was at our end so we could see the action up close - even if there was this 10 yards of no mans land in front of the stand.

So for the first 10 minutes it was all Town until the referee was alerted by the linesman to a foul that must have occurred a good few minutes beforehand. The ball was taken back into the Town half so that a golden boy could wellie it over the bar and in any case the ref blew up again for a foul in the box by one of their players.

At this point, to everyone’s great relief, Garner got subbed by Bradley Wood and instantly the right hand side looked far more solid and impressive. Rather than Cambridge pressuring down their left, Wood and Coulson combined to start marauding down the same side and put Cambridge on the defensive.

So it was pretty much all Town. Ademeno, now wearing shiny green boots skipped over a couple of tackles and forced the keeper to save low to the left hand side of the goal, and Connell coaxed, turned and generally looked like the quality player he is.

And then of course the defensive frailties returned. Cambridge punted the ball down the middle with plenty of Town players around to clear it. Nobody took responsibility and a Cambridge player came in and forced Croudson to save to his left. Croudson went rightly berserk with the defenders who had almost gifted a second goal. From the corner the ball went out and then Cambridge struck the bar and from the rebound forced Croudson into a top class reflex parry of a powerfully struck shot.

I do recall a slight murmur of applause and approval from the stuffed dummy end, but it didn't last for any length of time. Any enthusiasm which might have been stirring was snuffed out when Connell tried, ever so delicately, to chip the ball over their keeper and into the top left hand corner of the goal, only to see the keeper palm it away.

Shortly after this Ademeno went off, worryingly rubbing his calf, but maybe that’s nothing serious, and Tom Corner came on.

The game petered out in a flurry of substitutions with Gobern coming on to replace Michael Coulson.

The final slightly comical incident came when Wright got the ball just inside the penalty box and took a swing. The ball went straight to another Josh Coulson, one of Cambridge’s huge defenders, who stooped down to head the ball away. It glanced off his head and rolled tantalisingly towards the far side of the goal. Everyone in the stand was convinced it was going in but somehow it just slid past the post.

And that was that. The Town players looked tired and trudged off having acknowledged the applause of the 300 travelling supporters. On balance a draw was not an unfair result but you were left wishing that glancing header had just trickled inside the post.

With Coulson and Ademeno back and hopefully Kenny Arthur fit again soon Woods will soon be able to put out his first eleven players. you'd hope that Garner doesn't play right back again and either of Bore or Wood would offer much more security in that department. Maybe Garner ought to be partnering Atkinson in the middle in place of Kempson. And then there’s Hudson. Who’s he you might ask, and I guess he was on the field but he was pretty anonymous throughout.

On the way out people were getting anxious about what we would do without Wright in midfield, but he’s here until the end of December and who knows - if we're lucky perhaps for even longer.

Man of the Match

There were several contenders for this. Croudson saved the day in the second half, and Atkinson was in control in defence. Wood was impressive when he came on, Eagle scored a great goal and Connell was a constant threat. However for sheer dynamism and for being one of the few players to be prepared to take responsibility and attack the opposition goal - it’s Michael Coulson.

Un-man of the Match

It’s a bit unfair to pick on Garner who was playing out of position so if anyone - it would be Mark Hudson

Official warning

Referee Bull made some odd decisions, not the least being when he pulled the games back five minutes after an incident he obviously didn't see. On the other hand he didn't make any blindingly obvious gaffes and didn't go mad with yellow cards, so a not ungenerous 7.0153482647282 with double Tesco Clubcard points is awarded. His linesman on the left hand side won't be getting a Christmas card from Alan Connell though given the number of times he called him offside.

The Tommy Forecast

Kenny Arthur will return but is Rob Peet the future? He just looks like a footballer and if he looks all right maybe he is all right?

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