City:3 U's:3

So pre-season friendly number five (I think) saw us make the short trip across the river to visit Cambridge City. The match was meant to be the centre piece of a fun day to mark City’s centenary year, but on arrival at Milton Road it became apparent that the extent of the fun was the world’s smallest bouncy castle, which had been erected in the car park. Bless them.



Milton Road


On the pitch United fielded very much a reserve team, with Albrighton, Pitt, and the returning Danny Brown the only names who are likely to start the first league game against York. Both sets of fans were in good voice from the off, with some good banter, mostly involving Jez George and Robbie Simpson, flying about. This was nice to see, and in stark contrast to ‘that’ match with our other local rivals (sic) last season.

City, with ex-United trio of Herbert, Simpson, and Gash in their line up, started positively, and the first opportunity fell to Gash, who latched onto a through ball from Steve Wales, rounded Luke McShane but saw his shot cleared off the line by Albrighton. Minutes later, United were in front when Darren Quinton sprinted forward, played a one-two with Scott Rendell and ran into the area to clip a shot over the diving Sherbert.

Scott Rendell and City's Glen 'it must be' Fuff


However the lead was short lived. Lee Roache found some space in the box, and although McShane saved his shot, Gash was on hand to ram the ball home from close range. United came back strongly, with Pitt and Brown going close from distance and Smith having a close range effort blocked by Sherbs after a good move involving Rendell and Quinton. But City were moving the ball around neatly, and finding space in the United half, with both wing backs, Pitt and Stephen Smith, often AWOL leaving the back three exposed. The inevitable happened five minutes before the break, when Wales found Roache, who shimmied past Josh Coulson and finished with aplomb.

Jimmy Quinn made a raft of changes in the early minutes of the second half, but these only triggered a third goal for City, when Roache finished off from close range. One of the new United faces was Pierre Joseph-Dubois, a trialist striker formerly of Reading. Despite looking a bit light weight, he made a good early impression with some energetic running, winning the ball off a City defender and whipping in a cross that was just too high for the inrushing Michael Hyem.

United pulled a goal back with nine minutes remaining when sub Lee Boylan eluded his marker in the box and headed home a Stephen Reed corner. And it got even better when Mark Convery burst into the area, and saw his shot diverted past the keeper by Joseph-Dubois to give United a generally undeserved equaliser. The young Frenchman could even have snatched a winner, but saw his injury time shot curl just wide.

Lee Boylan

So another friendly goes by and I still feel none the wiser. We weren’t very good for the most part, but when some of our better players came on (Boylan, Convery, Gleeson) we could have conceivably won the match. The obvious concern is up front, where neither Rendell nor Chilli did anything to suggest they should partner Boylan in the York match. Dubois looks promising, and definitely worth another look, but his slight frame may count against him in the rough and tumble world of the BSP.

I’m off on holiday this week, and won’t be back till August 19th. Hopefully by then we’ll have nine points on the board and the promotion push will be in full swing. Ho hum, I’m not holding my breath…

Man of the Match: Danny Brown – The returning skipper enjoyed a comfortable hour, with some accurate passing allied to his usual crunching tackles.

Danny Brown plays the ball into, er, space


Near death experience of the Match: Courtney Pitt’s off target shot which was heading for my face before it clipped the perimeter fence and bounced to safety. My whole life flashed before my eyes.