| Macclesfield Town | 3-1 | Cambridge United |
| Gardiner 21' | Campbell 60' | |
| Power 23', 88' | ||
| Att: 2,337 |
United line-up: Barrett, Ashbee (Beall 87'), Wilson, Marc Joseph, Foster, Campbell, Wanless, Rees (Taylor 67'), Kyd (Finney 80'), Butler, Hayes.
Booked: Wanless 2' (foul)
Ref: Mr B. Coddington (Sheffield)
[Fred Berry's match report] [Mark Slater's match report] [Jon Mansfield's match report]
Fred Berry's match report:
In the first half we were useless, why Rees is still captain I do not know. Wanless is the only player capable of captaining the team. Our best first half effort was confined to a weak header on target. Ashbee and Rees were awful in the first half, their crossing was pathetic.
Macclesfield's first came in the 21st minute, they won a free kick just outside the box. Their player curled it round the wall and it looked like Barrett had it covered but surprisingly it hit the post and went in 0-1.
Their second followed two minutes later. The defence failed to close down Power who struck a 20 yrd shot flashing past the near post and beyond Barrett 0-2. This is when the jeering and chants of "McFarland out" started from some of the faithful 250 U's fans. The rest of the half went by with no more incidents worth mentioning.
The second half we were better and apart from Ashbee and his crosses we did well. Rees (who later went off to cheering from the United faithful) saw a shot go inches wide. We failed to break the Silkmen's defence on too little occasion though.
Our only goal came in the 60th Min when Hayes' cross was met by a diving header by Campbell from 5 yrds out, the ball trickled into the net 1-2. Taylor and Finney came on and we came closer, Finney nearly levelling after he met a low cross but the ball spun wide. Taylor tried particularly well and I think Roy should give him a try in the team behind Butler and Kyd.
After sustained pressure we were caught out in the 88th minute when a long clearance found Power again, he ran through the defence and shot at Barrett who made a good save but could not hold on to the ball, he scored at the second attempt 1-3.
Ratings: Barrett 5, Ashbee 3, Wilson 5, Campbell 6, Marc Joseph 5, Foster 5, Rees 4, Wanless 7 (MOM Why is he not captain?), Hayes 6, Butler 5, Kyd 5.
Subs.
Taylor 7, Beall 5, Finney 6.
Team performance rating 3.5/10
Mark Slater's match report:
I always believed that the U's away following was better at getting behind the team than that displayed at the Abbey. Well, today was different. Every chant was negative and nothing was directed at encouraging the players, apart from a brief Cambridge after we scored. There have been may comments about booing players over the last week and again Rees got "the treatment" .. from the time the team was announced on the tannoy until he was finally substituted. There was a complete pratt in front of me who moaned whenever Rees went near the ball and when his shot unluckily missed the post by inches he was heard to say "thank God Rees didn't score or I would have had to eat my words". Thank God a U's player didn't score ???... what a wanker. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Jason Rees or Robbie Turner before him, but booing a player in Black and Amber ... no way (unless we sign Ken Charlery that is !). It seems that these morons aren't happy unless they are slagging someone off all the time. At least Rees takes the pressure off Hayes and Ashbee.
OK, so Rees had a bit of a mare in the first half ... but so did everyone else. If anyone should have been abused it's that joker between the sticks, Shaun Marshall must have been gutted to have been dropped to make way for Barrett who was seriously at fault for all three goals and if it hadn't been for Ashbee his flapping at a corner would also have been fatal (his performance today made Bastock seem good).
Goal 1: free-kick a couple of yards outside the area ... wall lined up, Barrett leaning on far post having a fag, inviting chip over wall into far corner. It was hardly hit with Stuart Pearce power .. more like Phyllis Pearce and he let it squirm in.
Goal 2: shot from outside area ... at least a yard and a half inside the post and Barrett was nowhere near (wake up !).
Our Goal: free-kick outside box, chipped to far post where Campbell headed in ... nearly repeated later by Wanless.
Goal 3: break-away whilst we were chasing the equaliser, player shot from an angle .. Barrett parried the ball and left a simple tap-in.
Roy McFarland came in for a fair bit of stick, from the usual "OUT" chant to more personal abuse ..... we could do a lot worse, Alan Ball is still looking for a job !!! Perhaps I'm starting to agree with Shaggy's comments about the mentality of some of the U's supporters and their obscenities ... we even had the original "you're going to get your f**king heads kicked in", but not today as we have a coach to catch !!!
The second half was a far better performance, how is it that we can be either good and then crap, or crap and then good. We are rarely good or crap for a whole game. Once Shaggy came on for Rees the attack started to look dangerous, even though the latter had started to get his passing game going a bit. The crosses were generally poor and shooting opportunities not taken.
Ratings:
Barrett 1 I think he stopped a back-pass once.
Ashbee 3 Defensively he looked OK ... but going forward was awful.
Wilson 4 Crossing very poor
Joseph 4 Distribution as crap as ever
Foster 5 Solid .. but never seems to win a header in the opponents box.
Campbell 7 Pick of the defenders and scored too ! (MoM)
Wanless 6 Usual tireless performance, hampered slightly by an early booking.
Rees 3 Some good passes in the second half and unlucky not to score
Kyd 4 Sodji (teatowel on his head) Stevenage reject had Kyddo in his pocket
all afternoon
Butler 5 Tried hard but little support
Hayes 5 Average .. crossing not as good as usual.
Taylor 7 Made things happen when he came on
Finney 4 Sod off back to Swindon
Beall ? Only on for about 2 mins
A few questions for Roy
- Ian Ashbee is NOT a wing-back so why play him as one ?
- Why give the captaincy to a player who is substituted every game ?
- Why don't you make Paul Wanless the captain ?
- Why didn't we sign that keeper from Crewe (Mark Gayle) ?
- Why Steve Finney ? ... Why not Trevor Benjamin ?
- What bloody chance have we of beating the scum ?
Mark
Jon Mansfield's match report:
What is going on, 5 points from 33, can things possibly get any worse? Saturday's performance against Macclesfield in the first half was absolute shite. We never looked like getting in their half let alone scoring.
Barrett was at fault for the first two goals, his positioning at the free kick was appalling, he blamed the wall but it was one of those ones you could call before the kick had been taken. The second perhaps not all his fault the striker should have been closed down, but he was beaten from 18 yards at his near post!! at two nil down we were dead and burried. The second half was more encoraging but we always tend to over elaborate in the box, the quality of the crosses were crap, when we did occasionally get behind the defence, we got the ball behind the goal, and sometimes behind the stand.
Jamie Cambell was alert enough to read the play to pull back a goal, and give us some hope, perhaps we had even worked that move out on the training field??????? (If they know where it is.) But the inevitable happened the sucker punch caught on the break and we were killed off. Shaggy came on and held the ball up front and showed some class, but it was too little too late.
This performance asked several questions:
1) Is Barrett a better keeper than Shaun Marshall ?
2) Why did Roy pick Ian Ashbee playing out of position at right back in front of Matt Joseph, (Possibly to give Rees a break, In my opinion Ashbee's best position is in the stand with his girlfiend, where he usually is) o.k Roy said Matt had a poor game at Scunthorpe but was he really that bad? (Or is it the old contract dispute? I wonder?)
3) Why isn't Wanless captain, he stands out as one of only three or four players that really give their all for the club (Shaggy, Butler, Foster, Kyd are the others) It is obvious the players have no respect for Rees, he stands in centre of midfield shouting but the players seem oblivious to him.
4) Why has Roy not pushed for more money to spend? It is obvious that we are short in a few areas particularly midfield, that was evident when we were winning. Does he think that things will get better on their own?
5) Why does Roy suddenly loose faith in some of the fringe players in the squad? ie Trevor Benjamin, Davey Williamson, featured in some of our best performances ie. WBA then dropped like a stone.
6) What does Jason Rees have to do to get dropped from the team? O.k, I have said before he can be an excellent player at times, but the guy is having a 'mare, hes getting stick from the fans including me, he has been subbed in the last few matches (quite rightly so) and should have been subbed in several matches before, he is way out of form and the best thing to do would be to drop him for several games to wake him. He doesn't deserve to be in the side, let alone captain it.
7) Whats happened to the team morale?
8) What does Roy and the team do all week in training?
and answered one question:
1) Adi Hayes ins't such a bad little player, after all.
Jon Mansfield.
Many thanks to Fred, Mark and Jon for their match reports.
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