BEN SULLIVAN reports from Shrewsbury where United earned a point, despite on off night.

AN injury time equaliser is a bitter pill to swallow, but it may be just the medicine to cure any lingering complacency in the title run-in. For 92 minutes Cambridge United looked like a championship side -- that is one playing poorly but on their way to a scarcely deserved 1-0 win.

They rode their luck, trusted in the reactions of a keeper on the peak of his game and took the lead with their first shot on target. Slack marking from a free kick undid all that good work. Normally a manager would be incandescent, but it says everything for just how one-sided this game was that Roy McFarland was grateful for a point.

"Over the 90 minutes we didn't deserve to win," he said. "We scored against the run of play, our keeper made three or four tremendous saves, and we got away with a point.

Arjan Van Heusden was certainly the star for United, making four reaction saves that must have had the Shrewsbury players thinking it was not to be their night. Their supporters certainly felt that way, as a good proportion of Gay Meadow's best crowd of the season had left the ground before Kevin Seabury's late equaliser.

They had seen their side make a mockery of the 14 league positions separating the two sides only to be thwarted by the Dutch giant time and again. Van Heusden made his first -- and possibly best -- save after just nine minutes. Neil Mustoe lost possession on the halfway line and Kevin Jobling sent Lee Steele clear.

He looked a certainty to score, but Van Heusden spread himself and deserved his luck when the ball came off his knee, and Steele headed the rebound against the outside of the post.

For all Martin Butler's workrate and Paul Wanless' bite in midfield, United looked a shadow of the side which put seven past Mansfield. New signing Paul Bruce was an isolated figure on the left wing and barely got a touch on his debut, while United's much vaunted strikeforce were unable to manage a shot on target in the first half.

Butler hit a cross-shot just over from wide on the left, but it was Wanless who came closest, cannoning a 25-yarder off the cross bar only for Butler to hook the tricky rebound chance over. Butler was the subject of plenty of transfer speculation this week, but it was his opposite number Steele who did most on this occasion to impress watching scouts from Arsenal, Middlesbrough and 0.

Van Heusden was forced into two more sharp saves immediately after the interval, holding Roger Preece's free header and then making a one-handed lunge to turn away Jobling's rising strike room the edge of the box.

United had their best spell immediately after Wanless gave them the lead, as Shrewsbury's morale understandably dipped, but it was not long before Van Heusden was being called into action again. Peter Wilding's chip after 76 minutes sent Austin Berkley clear, but the keeper again stood up well and made the save with his legs.

As Shrewsbury went for the equaliser, United had chances to settle it at the other end and forced Paul Edwards into his only save of the night with four minutes left, tipping over Bruce's 25-yard free kick.

But it was Trevor Benjamin who should have won the game with his one chance of an otherwise quiet night. He combined with Butler on the right and Butler's cross found him four yards out with just Edwards to beat, but somehow he contrived to scuff the ball past the far post.

Even the most partisan in United's travelling support would not deny that Shrewsbury's equaliser was deserved, and even at that late stage it could have been a lot worse. Again Van Heusden came to the rescue. The outfield players were still coming to terms with that shock equaliser, but Van Heusden kept his concentration to keep out Mike Brown's point-blank header.

Injuries to Van Heusden and Wanless, plus Ben Chenery's fifth booking, made it an expensive point, but Shrewsbury manager Jake King had no doubt about the destination of the title.

"I said four months ago when I saw them at Chester that Cambridge would win it, and I still say that now," he said. "They are a quality side, but tonight we deserved the points. Their keeper was absolutely superb."

There was no arguing with that.

The fact they quite possibly deserved all three points, let alone the draw, doesn't make the Shrew's last gasp equaliser following a dubious free kick any easier to swallow. For the previous 93 minutes Arjan Van Heusden had put in a faultless performance during which he produced breathtaking world class save after save. Deep into stoppage time though he lost his cool and came for a cross that it never looked like he was going to reach.

The contrast between the Shrewsbury we faced tonight, and the one who came to the Abbey earlier in the season to grind out a point was amazing. They were brimming with confidence and belief, on a run of five straight home victories and roared on by their biggest league crowd of the season. Once again, the 'cup final' logic entered the equation. This time, unlike at Barnet, it looked as though United would handle the pressure and sneak the sort of victory associated with Championship chasing teams.

The first half was hardly a treat for the 'bumper' crowd as both United and Shrewsbury were weak and ineffective on the ball. We probably had more of it, but certainly did less with it. The home side should have found themselves in the lead on 10 minutes. Neil Mustoe blemished an otherwise faultless display by giving the ball away just inside his own half. An accurate through ball sent Lee Steele clean through. The striker, who boasts a 100% goal ratio over in last few months, watched Van Huesden and then the post deny him his tenth goal in ten games.

At the other end Martin Butler was toiling away to little avail. John Taylor looked tired, and Benjamin a little uninterested. Paul Bruce, making his league debut, looked competent on the ball but with little competitive match practice in his career was always likely to struggle to make any real impact. The busy Mustoe enabled United to control the tempo to a certain extent, and was involved in the move that should have given us the lead. Neil Mustoe set Ben Chennery free down the right side of the pitch. His cross found it's way to Wanless who unleashed a shot from 25-yards which crashed against the bar and back into play. Martin Butler failed to control the bobbling ball and blazed the rebound over. This was United's only real opportunity during a first half that was pretty even, but not very entertaining.

The second period was a different story altogether. United were in danger of being swept aside by Shrewsbury who upped the tempo and will still be left wondering how on earth they were not two or three goals to the good before United hit them with the sucker punch.

Andy Duncan defended superbly on 50 minutes as his sliding tackle prevented a dangerous looking attack from the home team. From the resulting corner Ajran Van Huesden made the first of a succession of superb second half saves. His most notable arrived moments later as Steele combined with Jobbing and presented the former Southend forward with a glorious opportunity to break the dead-lock. He unleashed a thunderous shot that was heading straight for the top corner of the net before 'Ise' stuck out a strong hand to deflect it wide for a corner. This was not an ordinary save, it was yet another moment of brilliance from the Dutchman that United used to turn the game around.

Ten minutes later Jamie Campbell took a poor free kick, which somehow managed to find it's way to the far post where Neil McKenzie had the simple task of tapping in from two yards. It was almost too simple, and he scuffed his shot before the ball was cleared. Fortunately for the former Stoke midfielder Paul Wanless was lurking on the edge of the box to fire the ball home into the bottom right hand corner to spare his blushes.

This goal sparked United into life, and for the remainder of the match looked far more competent and confident on the ball. Unfortunately Shrewsbury matched this added input and continued to look the most dangerous and creative going forward. Berkeley capitalised on a lucky bounce and was clean through on goal with 15 minutes to go, but once again Van Huesden denied him, this time with his legs.

Paul Wanless appeared to aggravate his leg injury moments later, and was replaced by Ian Ashbee. This was a bad blow, as Wanless is at present having his most effective and influential spell of the season. He is everything you expect of a captain and more, and I just pray his injury is not too serious as without him this team lacks something that no other player can produce.

Shrewsbury carried on taking the game to United, and throwing men forward in a desperate attempt to get something from the game. This left holes at the back, and with Duncan and Eustace having fine games in general the Shrews attacks were breaking down and we were catching them on the break. We could and perhaps should have killed the game off during this spell. Paul Bruce had a 25-yard free kick acrobatically saved on 85 minutes, and seconds later neat work from Martin Butler gave Trevor Benjamin a glorious opportunity to wrap up the points but he blazed over from 5 yards.

This miss would prove costly, to the tune of two promotion points. Deep into stoppage time Andy Duncan was deemed to have committed a foul on the edge of the area. Kevin Seabury met the resulting free kick and looped a header over the advancing Van Huesden to snatch a point for the Shrews. Their play probably deserved all three, and they very nearly got them in the dying seconds. Michael Brown powered a header towards goal only to see Van Huesden complete a marvellous goal-keeping performance by sticking out a hand to deny him. He injured his hand doing so, and along with Wanless limping off and Chenery picking up his 5th booking of the season it was a costly trip that is only diluted slightly by the point gained.

It is never nice to concede a last gasp goal, and when it has come from a disputed free kick it is even harder to accept. Some suggest that United did not play well, and were a shadow of the side which swept Mansfield aside just six days earlier. I personally think Shrewsbury were one of the most dangerous sides we have faced all season. They were playing with confidence, and have the third best home record in the division. I doubt there will be many more teams that will win there this season.

It is depressing to watch two points disappear in front of your eyes. We have experienced the joy of last minute winners against Cardiff and Rotherham, so it had to be expected that it would happen to us at some stage of the season. It is a measure of how far the team has come this year as last season the experience last minute madness probably cost us promotion.

"You'll be back again next year" chanted the Shrewsbury fans at the end of the match. I wonder how many will put money on their rather ambitious Auto Windscreen Shield draw prediction.

Man of the match: Arjan Van Heusden made this one of the easiest decisions of the season as he produced four world class saves to keep United in the match. His distribution was at times average, but make no mistake this man is the only reason we left Gay Meadow with a point.

I didn't think we played particularly badly last night, we certainly performed better than we did at Barnet and I thought we looked excellent at times after Shaggy went off for McKenzie and reverted to 4-4-2, apparently our performance was rated as lack lustre by the radio Cambs commentary team?...I wouldn't have gone so far as to say that, it certainly wasn't as supercharged as the Mansfield game but we can't play that way every week.

4-4-2 gave us added width that I haven't seen us use for a while and we played some neat football for a spell after we'd scored and should have added at least another goal.

I was disappointed with Benji again although I don't think he played as badly as Trevor Peer apparently said he did......having said that he is proving to be an immensely lazy player and there were several times last night when the ball was knocked forward for him to chase and his efforts were half hearted to say the least, if only he believed he could get the ball on such occasions I think he might surprise himself.

Butler was mustard again and is clearly enjoying his game, thank goodness we didn't lose him on dead-line day, big Trev could learn some lessons from him concerning commitment and self belief.

Ices' kicking was for the most part dreadful again although he more than made up for it with two stunning saves although I wish he'd either stayed on his line or caught the ball from the free kick that resulted in the equaliser rather than punching he ball. Again having said that I was impressed with Shrewsburys set-pieces which is more than I can say for ours,this a part of our game that I think we really need to work as we waste so many free kicks by taking them quickly and losing posession straight away as a result and we waste so many of our corners.

We certainly looked shaky under pressure from the Shrewsbury set pieces with free kicks being swung in expertly, just far enough away from Ice to prevent him from making a catch but close enough to the goal to make them dangerous and very hard to defend, it's certainly no surprise to me that 35 of Shrewsburys 48 points have been won at home.

I wasn't overly impressed with Paul Bruce although his scorching free kick was brilliantly saved by the Shrews 'keeper, after seeing McMahon play superbly at Barnet I was somewhat mystified to see that he was completely out of the squad and would have liked to have seen either him or Ashbee in the starting line up.

This bit might cause and argument or two..........I thought Chenery had one of his best games for ages both defensively and coming forward, twice in the first half and probably the same number of time in the second, he ran from his own penalty area all the way down the right wing evading several tackles and linking with Butler or Mustoe and produced good crosses at the end of the move instead of either losing the ball, falling over or putting his cross wildly into touch, he seemed to have a little more confidence in himself last night.

Jamie Campbell did my head in a couple of times with his distribution, on one occasion in the first half he was in acres of space half way inside the Shrewsbury half and was under no pressure, Butts and Shaggy were screaming for the ball and Mustoe and Wanless were racing forward, Jamie for some unknown reason decided to hit an aimless pass to his left, miles away from anybody which trickled out for a throw-in, I really do wish he would take his time and look, all too frequently he rushes into a pass when he needn't and his distribution continues to undermine his defensive qualities IMO, he certainly seems to give the ball away more than any other United player at the moment.

Overall I suppose the result was a fair one and certainly one that I would have settled for before the game (in fact I won the car sweep of 2 quid as I forecast 1-1) although I was somewhat gutted to see us concede deep into injury time and then nearly had a heart attack when they were a whisker away from a winner almost from the restart, which made it seem like two points dropped when it was actually a point gained away from home against an in-form side with the ( I think) 4th best home record in the division.

Ice made three or four excellent stops but to balance that Wanless hit the bar, Bruce had his free-kick blindingly saved, we had one attempt cleared off the line, their keeper made another excellent save and Trev missed his obligatory sitter when he really should have scored so all-in all it wasn't too bad a performance or result IMO.

New signing Paul Bruce went straight into the side tonight to replace David Preece at number 11, and fellow new boy Neil MacKenzie was on the bench. Skipper Paul Wanless passed a late fitness test on a calf injury which prevented him from training yesterday. The Shrews welcomed back Brian Gayle who has been injured for the last two weeks.

The game got off to a quiet start with honours fairly even. It was not a free-flowing half and the first real opportunity for either side came after ten minutes when United had a real let-off. Neil Mustoe was caught in possession by Jobling whose pass between Duncan and Eustace put Steele in one-on-one with Van Heusden. The Dutchman produced a brilliant save to deny the in-form striker, with nine goals in his last nine games, and Steele's stooping header from the rebound just grazed the outside of the post. Three minutes later Martin Butler got on the end of a long ball, turned and found a 20 yard shot that dipped just over the bar.

After 18 minutes a Hanmer free-kick reached Kerrigan four or five yards out but Duncan did enough to allow Van Heusden to smother a tame shot. Moments later action switched to the other end where in front of the travelling Us Ben Chenery's cross was headed clear, but only as far as Paul Wanless 25 yards out whose first time shot hit the bar and Butler put the rebound over.

After half an hour Steele's shot on the turn was hit straight at Van Heusden who saved the tame shot from the edge of the box, and the next noteworthy action came a long nine minutes later when a long Shrews throw found Roger Preece at the edge of the box, but he blazed over. United's only response was a neat one-two between Mustoe and Taylor four minutes before the break, but Taylor's cross was headed over. United looked lack-lustre and Shrewsbury, on the back of a very good run of home form, edged the first half. Debutant Paul Bruce saw very little of the ball and Roy McFarland will no doubt have delivered a heated half-time team talk to shake United out of their torpor. (Half-time 0-0)

United started slightly brighter after the break but Shrewsbury carved out the first opportunity after just four minutes. Hanmer sprung the offside trap and got to the bye-line, but Andy Duncan's sliding challenge put the ball away for a corner which was taken deep to Preece, who headed straight at Van Heusden. After 54 minutes Steele, who had looked very impressive, produced some good work to turn and find Jobling, but his thumping shot was turned round by Van Heusden. Neil MacKenzie was handed his U's debut in the 57th minute when he replaced player-coach John Taylor, and on 58 minutes a loose pass from Bruce was collected by Steele who beat Eustace but put his shot across the goal.

However, very much against the run of play, United took the lead after 61 minutes. A free-kick was awarded 20 yards out and taken unconvincingly by Jamie Campbell. The ball bobbled and bounced around the area, MacKenzie had a dig at it before it was cleared to the edge of the area, where the lurking Paul Wanless thumped it low into the far corner.

The Shrews were far from buried and five minutes later Steele's diving header was just wide, and after 75 minutes Van Heusden had to stand up well after Austin Berkeley was through one-on-one, saving the shot with his legs. Ian Ashbee came on at this point for the limping Wanless, and four minutes later United enjoyed a rare chance when MacKenzie made room for a low drive from just inside the box, but the home side were mounting attack after attack and a nervous final ten minutes were in prospect.

United could have wrapped it up before the end, first in the 85th minute when Paul Bruce's 22 yard free-kick cleared the wall but was tipped over, and again in the 87th minute when Martin Butler got to the bye-line and found Trevor Benjamin, but the youngster couldn't quite get enough contact to turn the ball in.

Then Shrewsbury got the goal that their pressure had deserved. Two minutes into stoppage time Andy Duncan was harshly penalised for a tackle and a Jobling free-kick to the far post found Kevin Seabury rising above the defence to equalise. A minute later Arjan Van Heusden had to save the remaining point with the final action of the game, brilliantly saving a header from substitute Michael Brown.

It was a case of "after the Lord Mayor's show" for Cambridge, who looked a shadow of the side that destroyed Mansfield last weekend. To add to United's woes, Ben Chenery's 78th minute booking is thought to be his fifth of the season so, subject to official confirmation, he will miss the game against Halifax.

Reporter Mark Johnson had no hesitation in naming his man of the match tonight: "Arjan Van Heusden, no doubt about it, for a series of outstanding saves."