United line-up: Barrett, Matt Joseph (Thompson 55), Granville, Preece, Craddock, Raynor, Hayes, Hyde, Barnwell, Kyd, Beall.
Subs not used: Turner, Wanless.

Ben Mynott's report and ratings:
A very satisfying win, beating the Judas Taylor and Judas Scum McGleish. We may not have outplayed Orient in the way that we did Swansea, but we managed a comfortable win in the end.

The first half was fairly even; Cambridge perhaps just edged it on possession but Leyton Orient had the better chances. The best chance of the half fell to McGleish who, having beaten the offside trap (or managed to sneak past the linesman!) and found himself clean through. The ball was bouncing invitingly and with Barrett coming out to narrow the angles, all he needed to do was flick it over Barrett. He tried to, but saw his effort go wide.

Cambridge's best chance fell to Barnwell who was found unmarked from a left wing cross about 8 yards out. The keeper was caught in no-man's land, but Barnwell failed to keep his header down.

The other memorable chance of the half never quite became a chance; Raynor played a delightful ball into Beall's path, but the young midfielder didn't quite have the pace to get to the ball before it went in the area where the keeper smothered the ball.

Leyton Orient were surprisingly physical (a bit like Swansea) and again the ref failed to clamp down on this. Not one player was booked for the entire match, whereas with a different ref some players could have walked (at one point there was a 21-man scrap; just Barrett kept out of it). They were worst on Michael Kyd; I lost track of the number of times he turned his man and was either held back or hacked down just as he was getting away.

Cambridge seemed to up the tempo a bit in the second half. Chances fell to both sides, with the majority to Cambridge, but Leyton Orient always looked capable of scoring. It was never going to remain 0-0, and fortunately it was Cambridge who broke the deadlock in the 73rd minute. Paul Raynor took a right sided throw in and aimed it at the head of Jody Craddock who he had just ordered to get up into attack for the move. Craddock flicked the ball on to Kyd, who then himself flicked the ball on, finding Jamie Barnwell unmarked in a central position just 8 yards out. Barnwell beat the keeper to the ball and nudged it into the net.

TT then made a slightly strange substitution, taking of the impressive Tony Kelly. Within minutes it was 2-0. David Preece had stayed on the keeper after chasing the ball, but was running back when Raynor hoisted a brilliant pass out to Kyd on the right wing. The Orient defence hesitated looking for offside, allowing Kyd to take full advantage of the great pass. He took the ball down the wing, cut into the area, and with three or four players screaming for a cross he calmly fired the ball into the roof of the net at the keeper's near post. Having seen the replay on TV this was a very clever goal; not once did Kyd look at the goal, in fact looking across the goal to see is incoming teammates. This caused the keeper to expect a cross and leave the near post exposed.

Cambridge hung on surprisingly well; Thommo was superb having come on to replace the injured Joseph.

Performances:

Barrett         6       One or two important saves, but was clearly beaten 
on more than one occasion.  Fortunately each time the ball went just the 
right side of the woodwork.

Joseph          7       Solid defending again.

Craddock        7.5     One of his better games so far this season

Granville       5       Probably our worst player.  Played a hospital pass to Matt Joseph - and it turned out to be just that.  Matt was taken to 
hospital with a bang on the cheek and bad concussion.  He should be OK 
though.

Hayes           8       Another encouraging display, but I wouldn’t say he 
was even close to MoM.  Beaumont’s disagreed and gave him the award.

Raynor          9.1     Just sneaks it for my MoM.  He was everywhere, his 
passion and enthusiasm was as strong as it’s ever been, his passing was out 
of this world, and he had a big part in both goals.  This was Super Paul at 
his very very best.

Beall           7.5     A good performance.  If he had a little more pace 
could have scored.

Preece          8.5     Was superb for the first hour.  Finally we were 
treated to a performance similar to that we had been expecting from the 
experienced midfielder.  If he can reproduce this form week in week out 
we’ll have no worries.  Please stay Preece!

Hyde            6       Very poor for the first hour, then at last produced 
some great passes and started to take players on and beat them.  McFarland 
criticised his performance on the radio and rightly so.

Barnwell        6.5     His first touch was not great a lot of the time, 
and he lost possession quite a lot as a result.  He did look a bit more 
confident and was in the right place at the right time for the goal.  I 
think I’d prefer Darran Hay though at the moment - especially from what we 
saw of him while on loan last month.

Kyd             9       Just loses out to Raynor.  He won more than his 
fair share of balls in the air despite his lack of height, but it was his 
dribbling that was superb.  He was constantly taking on defenders and 
beating them, and the way he was constantly fouled would normally have 
resulted in several cards being dished out.  His goal was a delight and no 
more than he deserved.

Sub:

Thompson        8.5     Came on and tightened things up at the back.  Won 
every tackle - very very impressive.

As well as the performance and the result, the crowd too was very pleasing. The largest of the season by quite some way, giving tremendous support throughout. We even managed some signing in the Habbin (although at times it felt like just me & Dad!). Having seen an exciting game the fans should be encouraged to come back.

One disappointing thing about the day was a group of fans handing out anti-board leaflets before the match, trying to drum up support for a demonstration at the end. In the end most people obviously disagreed with this small minority as less than 50 stayed behind.

I for one am far far happier with McFarland as a manager than TT (many of you will know that I was very anti-TT and had never really been won round by him; to this day I have never joined in with chants of "Tommy Taylor’s Amber Army", choosing to sing just the last two words of the chant whenever it was sung. I realise a lot of you are disappointed to see TT go, but I certainly am not and can only look forward with optimism. Just like McFarland himself!

I’ll be really happy if we sign Darran Hay; losing McGleish was a big big blow (something I think we all agree on) but getting Darran Hay back would soften the blow. The few times he played during his loan spell he looked a better all round player than when he was a United player two years ago.

Ben.

Terry Wilby's report and ratings:
A match that we eventually won quite easily, but also could have so easily lost in the first half.

Scott McGleish had 3 good chances early on to score, shot over, lobbed over Barrett and past the post when on his own (looked offside to me), and a good save from Scott Barrett.

Orient used their weight at all times, the referee was very lenient. On another day they could have lost a number of players for two bookable offences, although the match was not particularly dirty. There were a couple of flare-ups, both lots of pushing but no punches thrown. I don't think anyone was booked though.

Again we played three at the back, the three took a bit of time to sort out who was marking who, thus giving McGleish his chances. Our best chance in the first half came from a good left wing cross to Jamie Barnwell who headed high/wide from around 8 yards when unchallenged. Kyd was working hard, as were the midfield but not making clear chances. Adi Hayes seems to grow in confidence every match.

In the second we stepped up the pace and had most of the game. Chances went begging and it looked as if it could finish 0-0. Our first was a scramble in the 6-yard box which Barnwell finally scored. Soon after Kyd got away on the right, came to the 6 yard box and scored when it looked as if he would pull the ball back to barnwell or Beall in the middle. There were more half chances, but 2-0 was enough.

Matt Joseph got injured and was stretchered off to be replaced by Thompson. Kyd tired in the last 10 minutes, I thought Robbie Turner should have come on to put himself about. It's difficult to pick out one player for MoM, I'll go for David Preece. He wasn't spectacular, but controlled the middle.

Ratings:
Scott Barrett    7
Matt Joseph      6
Danny Granville  6
David Preece     8
Jody Craddock    6
Paul Raynor      7
Adi Hayes        7
Micah Hyde       7
Jamie Barnwell   7
Michael Kyd      7
Billy Beall      7

Subs:

Thompson         6

Turner, Wanless (not used).

A good crowd of over 4,100 made a lot of noise. Scott McGleish not surprisingly got a lot of stick whenever he got the ball, even the Habbin having a go at him. I heard someone say there had been trouble with him in the changing rooms. Perhaps the Moose got to him?

All in all a good result which keeps us at the top. We are lightweight at the front, I think Kyd or Barnwell alongside Turner (or Benjamin) must be used against the more physical teams.

Terry Wilby.

Many thanks to Ben Mynott and Terry Wilby for their reports.

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