United line-up: Barrett, Matt Joseph, Granville, Hayes (Barnwell 57), Craddock, Raynor, Ashbee (Richards 70), Wanless, Taylor, Kyd, Beall (Thompson 85).
Booked: Raynor (dissent 89)

Ben Mynott's match report:
My first game in over a month and I'm made to suffer THAT!!! We were dire and got just what we deserved - nothing. However Hereford were far from good and looked like a team one off bottom.

Their goal was a fairly well hit shot from a central position about 20 yards out. As seemed the case throughout the game, the Cambridge defenders stood off allowing the player a free shot. It still wasn't perfectly hit, and perhaps Barrett might have thought he should have stopped it.

RM played 5-3-2 again with Raynor and Ashbee as wing-backs. This didn't work at all; Ashbee hardly got forward at all and Hereford thoroughly dominated the midfield. Kyd & Shaggy were increasingly isolated up front.

Despite all this Cambridge had the better chances, and had they been able to finish an undeserved 3 points was far from out of the question. Beall had three bites of the cherry at one point in the first half but still couldn't beat the floored keeper. Barnwell came on and soon after rounded the keeper brilliantly - only to sidefoot into the side netting - with his favoured left foot too. I was already leaping in the air as I couldn't see him not scoring - did I feel silly (not to mention gutted). Shaggy had a few half chance headers, but while his feet were working well his heading was decidedly poor.

Man of the Match is really difficult to call - on reflection I'll give it to Raynor for his hard work down the left.

Performances/Ratings:

Barrett         5       Had little to do.

Ashbee          3       Didn't look a bad footballer, but looked
unbelievably lazy.  A real waste of space.

Raynor          6       Worked hard all game and often tidied up after
Beall or Hayes had put him in trouble.

Joseph          5       Didn't win a thing in the air against the big
Hereford strike force; perhaps he works as sweeper against shorter
attackers but it was a joke on Saturday.  Put him back on the right wing!

Granville       5.5     Did OK going forward, but perhaps didn't close
down the opposition enough when defending.

Craddock        2       The less said about this donkey performance the
better.  Contrived to give Hereford numerous goals but didn't account for
his opposition's ineptness (or should it be ineptitude?).  

Hayes           4.5     2 thirds of an ineffective "attacking" midfield.

Beall           3       The other third!

Wanless         5       Played deeper than Hayes and Beall, probably his
best position.  However he was awful in the first half.  Fortunately he
bucked his ideas up at the break and was perhaps our best player in the
second half.

Kyd             5       Looked promising in the first half but faded badly
- probably fed up with the lack of support.

Taylor          5.5     Played the ball intelligently with his feet often
linking up well with Kyd, but was remarkably poor in the air.


Subs:
Barnwell        4.5     What a miss!
Richards        4       Totally ineffective.
Thompson        5.5     At least showed some commitment.

The sooner we forget this game the better!

Ben.

Gareth Challis' match report:
Not much to say about this game ... regional teletext reported that the U's had many chances on goal but were unable to convert any of them, although I only really remember Taylor and Kyd having a go at goal.

I missed the goal itself, but having seen it on TV last night, I'm not sure if was the quality of the shot that beat Barrett or whether it was actually Barrett who was at fault - A hopeful shot at goal bounced past the 'keeper and into the corner of the goal - perhaps Scotty didn't see it till late ... oh well.

It had "One of those game's" stamped all over it. United didn't show much will to win, and although they didn't perform as badly as the 2nd half against Exeter, they did perform badly for 90 minutes. Again, we were thankful the opposition didn't play well either, else it could have been much worse. Hereford should have had a second but somehow hit the post when it was easier to score.

Everyone was calling for Richards, and although I agree he should be in the starting 11, there seemed little point on placing him up front when there was no service whatsoever from the midfield. We need Micah back. It's funny that he came on when the crowd were calling for him - at that point it seemed that McFarland had no ideas of what to do and seemed to give him the nod to go on only because of the crowd.

Ho hum. I guess the better news on the day was regional teletext quoting Preece as saying he is placing his future at the Abbey.

Ratings:

Barrett		5 - Not much to do.
Joseph		6 -
Granville	6 -
Hayes		4 -
Craddock	5 - Last game for the U's ... :(
Raynor		4 -
Ashbee		3 -
Wanless		6 - *Mom* seemed more interested in winning than anyone
		    else.
Taylor		5 -
Kyd 		4 -
Beall		5 -

Subs -
Barnwell 	6 - Added a little bit more up front but not enough. Came
		    on for Hayes on 57 mins.
Richards	6 - Did a little better than Ashbee who he replaced on 70.
Thompson          - Strange substitution for Beall with 5 minutes left.

Terry Wilby's report:
What is going on? Why can we play really well against top teams, yet so poor against low teams?

Hereford scored from a 25 yard shot in the first half, and hit the post in the second, but that was about all. Scott Barrett had an easy game. Our 3 defenders have trouble deciding who should close down an attacker, then whether to tackle or not. By the time they've decided the attacker is 10 yards further forward with a clear shooting chance.

We did make some chances, twice their keeper had to take the ball off Billy Beall's toe as he tried to get on a through ball, Shaggy missed his kick at a crucial moment, and Jamie Barnwell rounded the keeper and then shot past the post of an open goal.

Unfortunately in no way did we look a top of the table team. Our passing was poor, there seemed to be little idea of what to do. Paul Wanless was by far our best player, mainly because he put himself about a bit looking for the ball. There was one occasion in the first half where he closed down the defender twice to win the ball, went on a 40 yard run into the box but had to wait for support and eventually got a corner. Billy had a reasonable first half, but poor second half.

Barnwell came on for Kyd after 60 minutes, Thompson for Ashbee, and Richards for Beall. Our few attacking plays came when Joseph or Granville pushed forward. As usual their big centre forward was not often marked by Craddock, luckily they didn't put in many crosses to him. Shaggy did OK, as did Raynor. Hayes, Asbee and Kyd did little right all game.

All in all a disappointing game, the few good points were that one of the mascots came from Peterborough (so at least one kid knows something about football), and that Slade's 'Cum on feel the noize' was played at the end of the game.

Ratings:
Barrett   5
Joseph    5
Granville 5
Hayes     3
Craddock  5
Raynor    6
Ashbee    4
Wanless   7
Taylor    6
Kyd       4
Beall     5

Subs:
Richards  4
Thompson  4
Barnwell  5

Many thanks to Ben Mynott, Gareth Challis and Terry Wilby for the reports.

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