| Mansfield Town | 3-2 | Cambridge United |
| Christie 11' | Finney 35' | |
| Whitehall 17', 62' | Wanless 77' | |
| Att: 2,239 |
United line-up: Barrett, Hayes, Wilson, Marc Joseph, Foster, Campbell, Wanless, Rees (Matt Joseph 74), Finney, Butler (Benjamin 66), Preece (Rodosthenous 83).
Ref: A R Leake (Darwen).
[Ben Mynott's match report] [Keith Webb's match report]
Ben Mynott's match report:
Yet another dreadful display at Field Mill! Three years running I've seen awful performances by U's sides in rotten weather. Why!!
The first half hour was the worst display by a U's side for quite some time; certainly the worst this season. There were more holes in our defence that in a teabag and I don't think we managed to string more than two passes together. Mansfield tore us apart and could easily have been five up in no time at all. Their two strikers were very impressive, Iseden Christie in particular, while their midfield controlled the game.
Woeful defending gifted them two goals; Barrett was certainly blameless. He was almost victim to a humiliating lob soon after the second goal, but fortunately the Mansfield number eight (who looked about 8 years old!) couldn't execute what seemed like an easy chip.
Cambridge then scored totally against the run of play; Hayes' cross from the left was met by Steve Finney who finished well with his outstretched leg. For the remaining 5 minutes of the first half Cambridge did come back into the game slightly, but failed to create anything.
The second half was much more even. Cambridge dug in and showed some grit that was distinctly lacking in the first half. The defence was still very poor though and Mansfield managed to extend their lead all too easily; the scorer was totally unmarked again. Before this however there had been a couple of goalmouth scrambles in which the luck was certainly with Mansfield; Finney, Wanless and Butler all had efforts blocked somehow. Had one of these gone in it could have been a different story.
Cambridge did manage to restore respectability to the scoresheet thanks to our two best players on the day. Matt Joseph cut inside on the right and found Wanless with a pin- point cross, who scored at the second attempt after his header was blocked. After this Mansfield came the closer to scoring; they had two penalty appeals, one of which looked more that slightly legitimate, although it was difficult to tell as it was at the other end.
Overall a deserved defeat, purely for the performance in the opening 30 minutes. That apart, it was a fairly evenly-matched game. Not very encouraging to see our next opponents, Rochdale, put 5 past Darlington!
Performances:
Barrett 6.5 Made some good saves; couldn't be blamed for the goals.
Rees 3 Switched to right wing-back after 30 minutes, having played in the
midfield during the opening period when we played 4-4-2. Very poor
again; I was pleased to see him substituted.
Wilson 3 Part of a very poor defence.
Campbell 2 Even worse.
Foster 1.5 Didn't look interested. Very very very poor!
Marc Joseph 3 Not much better.
Hayes 2 Weak in midfield. Should have been replaced but wasn't.
Preece 4 Worked hard but was ineffective. Did show some fighting spirit playing
half an hour with a badly gashed leg.
Wanless 9 Man-of-the-match by far. Had to do the work of the entire midfield,
took his goal well and was unlucky not to score on other occasions.
Finney 7 Quite quiet, but what he did do was good.
Butler 4.5 Out-of-sorts early on, but improved in the second half - at which point
McFarland took him off!
Subs:
Benjamin 6.5 (for Butler) Not much skill but a lot of effort and made a nuisance of
himself.
Matt Joseph 8 (for Rees) brought some much needed quality to the side. WHY WHY WHY
doesn't he start!!
Rodosthenous 6 (for Preece) Not bad. Needs a shorter, more simple name!
I have to question McFarland's team selection and substitutions.
I hope the two new signings provide a much needed boost and that our bad patch is now over. Please!
Ben.
Keith Webb's match report:
For the first 30 mins the 200 odd ultra faithful and thoroughly soaked U's fans were treated to a display of absolute mindless garbage with United players just hoofing the ball aimlessly and making no attempt at putting sensible moves together. When I saw that Rees was playing I decided to count how many passes of his would either go straight to an opposing player or would end up on an empty area of the pitch. The man had an absolute nightmare and I gave up counting at 8 misplaced passes in the first 15 mins, it was an absolute relief for him as much as for the fans when RM finaly saw the light and pulled him off in the 2nd half. When we finaly decided to wake up and pass the ball on the floor we looked pretty impressive,but it was always going to be too much and despite dominating the second half we got what we probably deserved - nothing.
Finney was impressive although clearly not match fit and deserved his first half goal, the other main talking point from the match has to be a certain Matthew Joseph. Within 2 mins of coming on he surged down the right wing and crossed for Wanless to head in. Joseph is clearly not injured and his absence probably owes more to the fact that he wont sign a new contract. Not playing Joseph is nothing short of criminal and in my opinion McFarland should get his thumb from up his a**se, climb down from his lofty perch and play the man, maybe then he might sign a contract.
When he first joined the club RM said "Don't judge me by the next few months results but judge me by the players I bring in." Well this is definitely his team and it's an understatement to say they are underacheiving.
Keith
Many thanks to Ben and Keith for their match reports.
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Well there goes another three points down the pan,and once again we managed to make what was prior to today a struggling club look like world beaters. After the match McFarland whinged on about the conditions making defenders slip and about the fact that ball just wouldn't go in the net. Those of you who were unable to make the trip shouldn't be fooled by that codswallop. The ball did go in the net twice and while it's true we created further chances we should never have allowed ourselves to be two goals down in the first place.