Ben Mynott's report and ratings:
Can't afford the time to write much of a report; life is hectic here in Paris and I've got my next exams a week on Thursday (panic!). I'll write a few quick comments though; I had a nice weekend back home in the UK made all the better for the U's win.

After an iffy first five minutes, I thought Cambridge strolled it in the first half; they played some good football, but this was easy as Torquay were so poor. 2-0 at half time was probably a fair reflection on the game; Cambridge had the better of the chances (Torquay were restricted to longer range efforts that Barrett held onto surprisingly every time) and scored two good goals. The first started with a great run out of defence from Danny Granville (playing in an unaccustomed central defence role) well into the Torquay half. He beat one or two players, and then sensibly passed the ball square to Beall. Billy spotted a huge gap in the Torquay defence that loanee Scott McGleish was running into, and played a good ball through. McGleish calmly took the ball in his stride and beat the keeper with some ease. His celebratory double flip put Corazzin's efforts to shame; it was nice to see it this time after a Cambridge goal (having seen him score AGAINST Cambridge last season at Lyer Road). The second goal was also scored by McGliesh; this time he seized on a mistake by a Torquay defender on the edge of the area, and again went on to beat the keeper easily.

Two key incidents then happened around the 60 minute mark. McGleish went down in a challenge (not malicious) and immediately it was evident he was in real pain. He had to be stretchered off and was replaced by Robbie Turner. Initially a small fraction of the crowd booed his arrival, but immediately this was drowned out by the majority who gave him a good cheer. RT appreciated this and acknowledged the fans.

The second incident saw David Preece hobble off to be replaced by Adi Hayes. Both McGleish and Preece were taken to hospital with suspected broken legs. Just what we didn't need! We finally find a striker who can score goals and land (at last) a quality midfielder with an old head on his shoulders, and they both get serious (probably) injuries.

After these enforced changes, Cambridge fell apart. Torquay applied more and more pressure, finally getting a deserved breakthrough when their big centre forward Baker was found unmarked at the far post. He lobbed his header back over Barrett, who had he stayed nearer to his line would have had an easy save. Just moments before the goal, Torquay should have scored; a poor ball by Beall back to Joseph, who then made a dreadful mistake and put three Torquay players clean through. But the player who stole possession went for glory and blasted the ball wide.

Cambridge were really hanging on during the closing minutes, and the ref rightfully added a bit extra at the end for CUFC's timewasting. But we held out, and got a (just about) deserved victory. A real game of two halves, but 2-1 was probably about right.

Performances and ratings (my Dad's and my sister's appear in brackets):

Barrett         6.5     (7,6)   A fairly solid performance, handling the
ball better than he has in the past.  He was alert to any through balls,
but loses half a mark or so for again finding himself in no-man's land for
the goal.

Matt Joseph     5       (6,5)   Played in a sweeper role that I am told he
excelled in on Tuesday.  However he was guilty of giving the ball away on
more than one occasion in very dangerous positions.

Granville               6.5     (6,5.5) Asked to man-mark Torquay's tricky
number 10, and generally did a good job.  Good run for the first goal.

Thompson        7.5     (7,7)   This man is so inconsistent.  Having played
poorly on the opening game of the season, he was our saviour at the end on
Saturday with some outstanding defending.  Early on he struggled a bit,
getting booked for a silly foul, but grew and grew in strength.  Came very
close to my MoM, and had the game gone on for another 10 minutes and
remained at 2-1, he probably would have got it.

Richards                5.5     (5,6)   Played as wing-back on the right,
but was poor going forward.  He had one good chance that he wasted
(unsurprisingly) blasting the ball into the allotments on the volley.

Raynor          6.5     (5,5)   Played at left wing-back, and I thought did
well.  He ran a lot, defended well and got in behind the defence on numerous
occasions.  No silly unsportsmanlike conduct from him this time.

Beall           5       (4,6.5) Apart from his assist, everything he did
was negative.  He often put the defence under unnecessary pressure playing
the ball backwards instead of forwards.

Preece          5       (5,6)   Showed some promise, and marshalled the
team well, but looked too slow at times and lost possession far too much. 
Hopefully there's much better to come from him, and hopefully his injury
isn't as bad as feared.

Hyde            7       (7,7)   Got the Beaumont's MoM, and again, as
captain, played well.  He has matured immensely and works so much harder
than he used to.

McGleish                8       (8,8)   A striker who knows where the net
is!  An excellent performance, always making runs beating the defence. 
Wins my MoM.  What a shame it looks like his last game for months (probably
ever for the U's).

Barnwell                6.5     (5,6.5) Linked well with MGleish, but had
no understanding whatsoever with Turner.

Subs:-
Hayes           7       (4,6.5) Put himself about well when he came on,
initiating Cambridge attacks and breaking down TUFC attacks with some great
tackling.  Not sure why my Dad didn't agree!

Turner          5       (2,5)   Showed enthusiasm for his first five or ten
minutes, then got dejected and didn't seem interested.  The fans were split
on him; some really started getting on his back while others tried to cheer
him on.  I must admit he didn't play very well!

Time for bed now; as always I've written more than I intended!

Ben.

Terry Wilby's report:

The "Game of Two Halves" cliche applies to this game, in the first half we were good but the second were rubbish.

Both David Preece and Scott McGleish started the game, both failed to finish due to injuries. McGleish has a suspected broken leg from a bad fall, Preece hobbled off after a knock.

According to the CEN Matt Joseph was to play at the back to mark Rodney Jack, the Torquay forward who was very quick. Unfortunately early on he didn't do a very good job. Danny Granville helped out and got the job for the rest of the game and did very well. I can't see Jack lasting the season with Torquay!

In the first half United played the ball around well to each other in all areas of the field, lots of pass and move. The first goal came from a through ball from Billy Beall to Scott McGleish who easily beat the keeper. Soon after McGleish took advantage of some poor defending to score his second. For all the possession we had we didn't really make a lot of good goalscoring chances, but we never looked like giving anything away. Paul Raynor was playing a little deeper than usual, often Jamie Barnwell was ahead of him on the wing. Preece and Beall controlled the middle doing the basics well without being too spectacular, McGleish always a willing runner at the front, Tony Richards on the right side. Micah Hyde did nothing special.

In the second half Torquay closed down space much quicker and hassled the player on the ball which stopped the U's playing the passing game. Robbie Turner came on to replace McGleish after around an hour, after that all we did was try mostly unsuccessfully to find Turner's head. Torquay got a goal from a looping header over Scott Barrett after a long cross. The attacker was unmarked and Barrett got caught in No-Mans-Land.

From what should have been an easy victory we were hanging on towards the end. We just about deseved all three points, a better team than Torquay would have taken them from us.

My Moose hat will be going to Northampton, so we shouldn't lose.

Terry Wilby

With thanks to Ben Mynott and Terry Wilby for their views.

Back to Match fixtures, results and reports

Home