Cambridge United again failed to follow up a good away result for the second Saturday in succession, crumbling against promotion-chasing Millwall at the Abbey Stadium.

The confidence built up by the 2-0 victory at Bury in midweek was destroyed when they allowed Millwall to grab two goals in the first quarter of the match. Outstanding striker Paul Moody was the man who got the goals, with a close range tap in and a powerful header.

Covering for suspended strikers Neil Harris and Richard Sadlier, he took advantage of a goalkeeping error to score in the 16th minute. He then beat the Us' centre backs in the air to make it 2-0 in the 22nd from a Robbie Ryan cross.

Millwall might have doubled their score but for good saves from Shaun Marshall, who denied Moody a hat-trick in the second half and kept out two shots from Tim Cahill. Cambridge had one great chance to break back into the game, but squandered it midway through the second half.

John Taylor, brought down by Tim Ifill in the 66th minute, hit the resulting spot-kick against the right hand post.

(c) Copyright Press Association Ltd 2000

Millwall's promotion hopes were boosted by this comfortable victory at relegation haunted Cambridge.

The home side started brightly but were undone by errors in the first quarter of the match. On 16 minutes Paul Shaw was allowed acres of space to cross. His centre was a poor one but Cambridge keeper Shaun Marshall made a dogs dinner of it, allowing Paul Moody to tap home from close range.

Cambridge briefly sparked back into life on 22 minutes when John Taylor galloped into the area. But his low shot was comfortably held. Millwall doubled their advantage immediately with Tony Warner's clearance finding Robbie Ryan isolated on the right. His cross was perfect for Moody who rose between the Cambridge centre-backs to head home from eight yards.

Once again Cambridge attempted a fight-back with John Hansen in particular looking impressive. He set up Taylor on 27 minutes for a clever shot which curled fractionally over the bar.

Cambridge were forced to chase the game and always looked vulnerable to a counter-attack. No more so when Michael Gilkes sped away down the left and his cross-shot was superbly parried by Marshall who was relieved to see Moody unable to latch onto the rebound.

Cambridge needed to hit back before half-time and were disappointed to see Tom Youngs sharp shot on the turn pushed round the post by Warner in the 40th minute.

The second half followed a similar pattern with the Millwall midfield controlling the game. The visitors almost added a third on 56 minutes when Shaw's cross found the impressive Tim Cahill whose six-yard header was athletically tipped over by Marshall.

If Cambridge suspected it was not destined to be their day they knew for sure midway through the second period. Marshall's 65th minute long clearance was flicked into the path of Michael Kyd by Trevor Benjamin. Kyd's rasping drive was tipped over for a corner. From the resulting corner kick Warner knocked the ball to the feet of Taylor who was upended by Paul Ifill. Taylor himself took the resultant spot-kick, the keeper guessed right, dived left and saw the ball rebound from his post.

Belgium Christophe Kinet was introduced for the visitors on 73 minutes and he almost made an immediate impact, waltzing past three defenders before seeing his 20-yard shot pushed round the post.

Cambridge keeper Marshall continued to make a number of good saves late in the game but they could not make up for that early error.

ROY McFarland called the latest stumbling block along Cambridge United's rocky road -- a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Millwall -- "bitterly disappointing."

But that verdict presupposed high expectation cruelly crushed, when in reality most fans already had their hearts in their mouths before a ball was kicked at the Abbey.

Another chance to follow up a good away win was the manager's positive, optimistic outlook -- shared by few home supporters in a crowd of fatalists and realists let down too many times before.

Even the gloomiest pessimist however, could not have expected the second consecutive attempt at vital back-to-back victories to unravel so early and so hoplessly.

McFarland had preached caution and control to his men after the Blacklpool embarrassment. He wanted a solid start to sew some doubts among promotion challengers who had lost to strugglers in their previous two away games.

Yet with only a quarter of the game gone it was party time among the 1,500 Millwall fans at the allotments end, standing behind the goal United were supposed to be defending, and jeering the clumsy, leaden-footed, disorganised efforts of all but new man Tom Cowan, whose class and competence stood out all too obviously.

A couple of gift goals in six minutes from trundling journeyman centre-forward Paul Moody wrecked any hopes United had of following on from one of their best displays of the season at Bury four days earlier.

Last week United's defence struggled to contain 35-year-old Mike Newell, and they got no closer to 32-year-old Moody. Big and strong, but slow and predictable, called up as third- choice cover for suspended Neil Harris and Richard Sadlier.

A rare blunder by Shaun Marshall dropped the ball at his feet in the 16th minute, then centre-backs Scott Eustace and Marc Joseph looked more like escorts than challengers when he got between them for the second goal.

"We made mistakes and the damage was done," admitted Eustace. "However well you play after that, and we did play well at times, you are always chasing the game, and it's very difficult against a top team."

Both moves emanated from the left flank where United looked so vulnerable against Blackpool. Jason Kavanagh, who struggled in that match, was preferred to Ben Chenery again, but had another uncomfortable half an hour before limping off with hamstring trouble.

United managed to recover quite quickly from the stunning double blow, and there were two periods when they had good chances to pull a goal back and make a real fight of it. But they found Millwall keeper Tony Warner in excellent form, and missed a 66th minute penalty, which might have sparked an enthralling final quarter.

The United midfield found it tough against Tim Cahill and David Livermore, but still managed to help create enough chances late in the first half to have produced maybe a match-changing goal.

But John Taylor sent a shot skimming over the bar before goalkeeper Warner made a fine diving save from Tom Youngs, then did well to see Trevor Benjmamin's powerful free kick when it skidded through the defensive wall. And even though Taylor's spot-kick midway through the second half -- after he collided with Paul Ifill -- struck the right hand post, it looked as though Warner, hurling himself in that direction, might have got to it if it was goalbound.

Taylor said he believed his side had created enough to have got something out of a game in which generally there was not almost a division's difference between the teams. But it was difficult to see how they could have salvaged anything after the early errors, because it was Millwall who looked stronger at the finish as two of United's most effective attacking players, Taylor and Danish midfielder John Hansen -- having to adapt to the pace of English football -- tired.

It might have been a worse beating but for the second half display by Marshall, who pulled off good saves from Cahill in the 47th and 56th minutes, denied Moody his hat-trick with an outstretched leg in the 72nd, then did well to get in the way of a power drive two minute later from Christophe Kinet.

But the young keeper would have swapped that lot for a much less threatening ball sticking in his gloves in the fateful 16th minute.

Report © Cambridge Newspapers Ltd

And there you go. Tom Cowans played very well, as did Wanless but the rest of the team played like passengers. That having been said, it is a miracle we didn't at least score but their keeper made some very good saves, notably from a cracking Tom Youngs volley in the first half. Shaggy's penalty didn't hit the target, which in my opinion is pretty unexcuseable - and he struggled during the game.

I didn't think Millwall were a very good side and weren't too good for us by any means, we just shot ourselves in the foot yet again. Terrible defensive mistakes and mishaps, and an inability to turn pressure and possession into goals. We had all the chances, we had most of the play. Millwall looked as if they were going to collapse, but just when we had them in the corner we gifted them a goal. They were reeling when we had the penalty as well, but yet again we threw the chance away. I would have loved to see us at 2-1 down with 15 mins left ... they looked a shaky old side at the back in my opinion.

This was better than the performance against Blackpool, but still below the standard needed to win games. Individual defensive errors and frailties cost us the game today, we were easily the match of Millwall in every other departments. We dominated possesion, and to be honest had the Lions share of the chances. I am not going to kid myself though, performances such as this aren't going to be enough to keep us up. I will kid myself though and say we won't carry on like this...

We did play some good football. What I couldn't understand was Roy stating he was only disappointed with the result, but perfectly happy with the performance. I wasn't happy with it, and nor were many of the other fans because luck really didn't play much of a part in proceedings - we didn't put in a winning performance. We did play well in spells, we did play some good football ... but didn't win the game becasue we can't defend.

Anyhow, just seen the other results and they went very well indeed. We are still 4 points away from the safety zone, so aren't out of it by any means. We have a pretty massive few weeks coming up, true make and break stuff in my opinion. Every game from now on is 'do or die' and we have GOT to keep this 'win/lose' run going at Brentford on Saturday ... should be an interesting game indeed.

Onward and upward ... still staying up.

Will Jones

The afternoon started well, in the Supporters Club the usual draw ticket swop took place and David Stroud won £20 with one of my tickets, and I won £5 with one from Peter Laborne. Dave Brown won nothing (as usual)!

Things went downhill from then as I read the programme to find that Millwall had never won at the Abbey, so like against Blackpool, another away win was on the cards.

The minutes silence in honour of Stanley Matthews was observed by everyone.

With the sun coming over the Habbin we attacked the Abbey in the first half. Their #26, Livermore, got himself booked after 2 minutes for a late tackle on Mustoe. Our first real chance came after 7 minutes, a corner was palmed away by their 'keeper, Warner (who looks like David James), onto the head of Wanless at the back post but his header was wide. He didn't really know much about it though.

Millwall showed throughout that they would be no push-overs, they used their weight and height whenever possible, and would go for the ball whenever, including late on Marshall after 10 minutes. Millwall thought they had scored after 14 minutes but play was pulled back for offside. A minute later they scored for real, a low cross from our right was fumbled by Marshall to a forward who had an easy tap-in. We responded with a good move between Taylor and Benjamin which set up Mustoe for a shot that was well saved.

Millwall broke down our right on 21 minutes, crossed and Moody was unmarked between 2 centre halves in the centre of the goal about 6 yards out and scored with ease to make the score 0-2. On 26 minutes Taylor made space but placed his shot wide of the far post. Mustoe almost put Hansen through, only a good interception stopped the ball getting through. Millwall were dangerous on the break, Marshall having to make a good save on 31 minutes. We responded with some pressure, a number of corners caused panic in their defence and some last ditch defending was needed by Millwall. Kavanagh picked up an injury and was replaced with Ashbee on 33 minutes.

Cowan made a good break down our left into the penalty area, crossed low and hard but a defender cleared for a corner. Benjamin was fouled just outside their penalty area, the usual routine was blocked but eventually the ball fell for Youngs to put in a good shot that was about to go in at the foot of the post but Warner made a good save to keep the ball out. Warner then blocked a shot but unlike at the other end, the ball was cleared from danger. Hansen put in a good low cross to the feet of Youngs, however his shot was high and wide.

The second half started, but we seemed not to, and Marshall had to make a save in the first minute, and again 9 minutes later. Hansen tired and was replaced early on by Kyd. A cross was juggled by Warner, and again he got away with it as he grabbed the ball unchallenged. Mustoe got himself booked for a needless late tackle on 17 minutes. Kyd made some space and put in a powerful shot that was turned away for a corner, from which Warner dropped the ball, and then fouled in his attempt to get it back to give us a penalty after 20 minutes. Warner dived early to his left, Taylor saw which way he was going and tried to put the ball closer to the post but succeeded in hitting the outside of the post and the ball went away.

Marshall had to make a save with his feet, and another Millwall forward shot over from 6 yards. Taylor had a shot saved, as did Benjamin with an overhead shot, then Wanless headed over from a corner. Youngs got injured and was replaced by Abbey after 37 minutes. A long throw from Cowans near the half way line gave Benjamin the chance to turn his defender, but his shot was wide. And that was that!

Millwall got all 3 points because they played to their strengths, getting the ball up quickly and supported each other, and made the best of the breaks they got. We didn't get the breaks, and when we did get a good chance to reduce the deficit the penalty was missed. Who knows what might have happened in the last 25 minutes if we'd pulled a goal back. Benjamin didn't look very interested and Taylor gave the ball away too often.

Wanless and Mustoe worked hard in the middle, Youngs had a quiet game but is improving his strength in holding off defenders. Hansen did well, putting in some good crosses to the middle of the goal (like the one that Milwall scored their second goal from), but we had no-one there. Cowans had a good game, making a lot of good tackles and looking composed with the ball, and is my MoM. Eustace and Joeseph did OK, although Eustace looked very slow turning for the ball over the top which Millwall used quite a bit. Marshall was at fault for the first goal, but made a few decent saves in the rest of the game. Abbey got cheers whenever he got the ball, which unfortunately wasn't very often.

I said last week I thought we would be lucky to get more than a point from this game, we weren't lucky enough to get a point. Other results have not been too bad, so we are no worse off than at the start of the game, but it is getting harder to see where we can get enough points to stay up. I hope we make it a hat-trick of away wins with the next game at Brentford.

Terry Wilby
Proud supporter of Cambridge United Football Club.