"You hear Premiership managers talking about injuries wrecking their season and it sounds like a bit of a lame excuse," he said, "but it's much more relevant at our level. They have the resources to bring in replacements. But when Scott Barrett, Dave Thompson, Lee Palmer, then Robbie Turner were forced out I could only turn to the kids.

"They did better than could have been expected, but there's no substitute for know-how, and we had so little of it. Now players like Matt Joseph and Jody Craddock are looked on here as people with a lot of experience, but they would be regarded as youngsters in most teams in this division.

"When we won at Lincoln after a very good display at the end of October to go third, I was more than confident we could stay among the front runners, but it wasn't long before the injuries started to bite."

That victory was nine games into the season. United had won four and drawn four. They shocked Swindon, the stars of the second division, by beating them at the Abbey in the Coca-Cola Cup, outplayed Preston at Deepdale in a 3-3 draw, and took the notable scalp of Bury at Gigg Lane. A shock home defeat by depleted Hartlepool looked like a freak result when Taylor's team followed up with the 4-2 thrashing of Cardiff City. But October was a cruel month. Four consecutive defeats pulled them down the table to ninth. And they continued to struggle through November.

"Despite that losing run I thought we could get back up into the play-off positions," said Taylor. "We'd brought in Paul Raynor, Craig Middleton was playing well, and the youngsters were showing a lot of promise. "We lost Steve Butler to Gillingham, but got Robbie Turner from Exeter and he started well."

Three wins in December earned Taylor the divisional 'Manager of the Month' award and hauled the side back into the top seven play-off places. He knew by then, though, there was a gap which had to be plugged.

"With our No 1 keeper and biggest centre-back out injured we needed a strong midfielder to hold things together. Bury's Shaun Reid would have been ideal. We were close to signing him when the terms were altered enough to price us out of it. I wasn't able to bring him in, and the inconsistency all young players experience began to tell."

It was downhill all the way from there. After beating talented Wigan on Boxing Day United went 11 games without a win. It was mid-March before the spell was broken by victory at Fulham. United were five places off the bottom and even the play-offs were out of the question. Taylor admitted: "The other thing we lacked was a player who was the kind of character in the changing room to lift the lads when things weren't going well. There is good team spirit, but maybe because so many of the players are so new to League football they are a bit afraid of what they saw, even among themselves. It was so quiet in the changing room I had to put a television in there to provide a bit of noise.

"The mood of a young team can change from one match to the next and there is not a lot you can do about it. I knew when they came back in from the warm-up whether we would win or lose. It was frustrating if they seemed to be lacking confidence, because at that stage there's nothing any manager can do to change the mood.

"I've enjoyed my first full season as a League manager. There's nothing else in the world I'd rather do. But it was desperately disappointing when I knew we weren't going to make the play-offs. I'm just glad we beat Preston so convincingly because at least it showed our supporters the potential we have here. I'm sure we have easily the best under-20 side in the division, and with the experience so many of the kids have gained we can do it next time."

From the Cambridge Evening News, April 26, 1996