U's:0 Diamonds:1

Good things about Friday nights game:

1) I only paid £2 to get in
2) Nobody got injured
3) We didn’t have to endure extra time
4) In the warm up Danny Brown was wearing a funny headband which made him look like a modern-day Eric Young (pictured). Unfortunately he took it off before the game started.

On point three, it got to the stage where, when we went on the attack in the closing minutes, I actually couldn’t decide whether I wanted us to score seeing as it would’ve meant another 30 minutes of turgid dross, and evoked memories of the attrocious LDV game against Cheltenham, which I think went all the way to penalties.

Yes the Setanta Shield was in town. The sponsors eschewed the chance to show the match live, presumably because of the terrible game between ourselves and Rushden that they subjected their viewers to earlier in the season.

JQ made a raft of changes, with Robbie Willmott and Michael Hyem both making full debuts. Willmott looked lively early on, playing up front off Scott Rendell, but the visitors soon grabbed the initiative against a sluggish U’s side.

The visitors best player was peroxide-blonde winger Marcus Kelly, and he was first to test Potter with a diagonal shot which was turned round the post. Kelly also missed another good chance, while Tom Shaw rolled a tame effort into DP’s arms when he really should have scored.
At the other end, United failed to stretch the presumably arthritic limbs of Paul Bastock, with the supply from wing backs Gleeson and Reed practically non-existent. Too many long balls were being pumped hopefully in the direction of Rendell and Willmott, and while the latter is undoubtedly a promising player, I suspect he doesn’t have a future as a target man. Both strikers did have half chances, with Rendell heading over and Bastock charging out to foil Willmott.

Rushden took a deserved lead through Shaw, who picked up the ball 20 yards out and, with no challenge forthcoming, placed an inch-perfect shot into the corner. They could’ve made it two just after half time when sub Michael Rankine unleashed a shot which beat Potter and rattled the post.

At the other end the best chance fell to Hoyte, who somehow shot wide with the goal gaping. The introduction of Boylan and Pitt added a bit of zip into United’s play, and the former almost got an equaliser but was denied by the sprawling Bastock.

There was still time for the returning Mark Albrighton to nearly score a comedy own goal (something which has been lacking in United’s play since Andy Duncan left) when a shot rebounded onto his shins, hit the post, and was scrambled off the line by Potter. 2-0 would not have flattered the visitors, who now have the dubious pleasure of a 5th round tie with Kidderminster to look forward to. I’m sure that’ll have the crowds flocking to Aggborough.

United never really got going in a match which is probably best forgotten ASAP. Hopefully they will step up the required few notches when our lovable near neighbours come to visit on Boxing Day. Merry Christmas everyone :)

Man of the Match: Danny Potter - The only player who was anywhere near his best. Made several good saves to keep the score down to 1-0.

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Shield of Dreams

I think I have Setanta Shield fever. Either that or I ate one too many mince pies at lunch and am suffering from indigestion. Whatever the cause, it’s making me feel bloated, much like United’s fixture list.

No seems to know exactly what the point of the Shield is, and I’m finding it a bit difficult to get excited about tonight’s match against Rushden. Nevertheless, seeing as I won’t be seeing another match in full (I hope to take in the second half of the first Histon game, but this will be dictated by the vagaries of the A1) until Wolves, I’ll be there, watching the boys take their first step on the road to, er, an as-yet undecided venue. That the organisers have yet to book a ground for the final probably tells you all you need to know about the shodiness of the competition.

I still want us to win though, if only to keep our momentum going ahead of the Histon and Burton games. It would also be a shame to lose our unbeaten home record to a side as limited (if their performance in the league game earlier this season is anything to go by) as Rushden. I’m plumping for a 2-1 win, hopefully with extended run outs for the likes of Hyem and Willmott.

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AOB: U's Blog Festive 19

Part one here


10: Maps – We can Create
Saw these guys play at Soul Tree earlier this year and they were wicked. They’ve done a good job on their album too, which thoroughly deserved its mercury nomination.
Top Tune: You don’t know her Name.

9: Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
This was a bit of a disappointment actually. The Monkeys have certainly cranked up the intensity, but FWN lacks the memorable tunes of its predecessor, Whatever People Say I Am... Still, Fluorescent Adolescent and 505 are marvellous.
Top Tune: Fluorescent Adolescent.

8: The View – Hats off to the Buskers
Bit of a curate’s egg of an album from the latest darlings of the NME. Some brilliant tracks like Superstar Tradesman and Wasted Little DJ’s are sandwiched between some very average filler. The whole thing seems a bit rushed, but the View certainly show promise here.
Top Tune: Superstar Tradesman.

7: Radiohead – In Rainbows
I don’t think I really ‘get’ Radiohead. I like a lot of their songs on their own but can never cope with a whole album without getting bored. In Rainbows is decent though, and certainly feels much less bloated than their last effort, Hail to the Thief. The middle of the album is particularly strong, with Faust Arp, Reckoner, and House of Cards all standing out.
Top Tune: Reckoner.

6: The Wombats – A Guide to love, loss, and desparation
The Wombats fit the criteria for an up and coming indie band pretty well: Their scruffy hair cuts, ‘wacky’ live shows, and lyrics about real life (ie girls and booze) should stand them in good stead for a prosperous career. Their music isn’t particularly original, and again this album feels a bit rushed, but it’s fun and likeable. Lets Dance to Joy Division isn’t quite as ironic as they think it is though.
Top Tune: Kill the Director

5: Manic Street Preachers – Send Away the Tigers
It amazes me that the Manics are still angry. Not as angry as they were, but still pretty angry none the less. SATT reminds me a lot of Everything Must Go, and although there’s a bit of lyric recycling going on (“You stole the sun straight from my heart” warbles Nina Persson on Your Love Alone is not Enough), this album has rekindled my interest in one my favourite bands from the 90’s.
Top Tune: Autumnsong

4: The Broken Family Band – Hello Love
BFB are probably the best Cambridge-based band around at the moment. Anyone who knows their work will be aware that all their albums are very different in style, and Hello Love is a move away from their country roots towards a new, rockier, sound. The band have applied their usual brand of world weary-cynicism to the topic of love, and the result is some of their best output to date.
Top Tune: Leaps




3: Idlewild – Make Another World
Of course you will have read my gig review of the Idlewild concert at the Junction in October, and from that will remember that I think Idlewild should be more famous than they are. I haven’t changed their mind, and I defy anyone to listen to MAW and disagree with me. Roddy Womble’s lyrics are characteristically thoughtful, while the band have returned to the heavy guitar that featured predominantly on their earlier work.
Top Tune: In Competition for the Worst Time

2: Tunng – Good Arrows
Just for the record, I’m not being pretentious here and trying to show off my music-snob credentials by selecting a relatively unknown band as creators of my second favourite album of the year. Good Arrows features this highly in my chart because it is a quite wonderful record. When the album first arrived I wasn’t that impressed; I found it to be a bit weird and incoherent. But as time passed I began to see it for what it is – a thing of great beauty and imagination. I’d advise anyone not familiar with Tunng to give them a try, you won’t regret it.
Top Tune – Bullets

1: Editors – The End has a Start
If you haven’t been to an Editors gig you should. They are superb, and Tom Smith’s voice, which sounds pretty amazing coming out of my stereo, takes on a whole new dimension in the flesh. Smith has apparently had a crap time in his personal life recently, and while many of his lyrics ache with the pain of loss (“In that moment you realise, that something you think will always be there, will die, like everything else”) it’s also clear that the album is at least in some part born out of the grieving process (“you fuse my broken bones, back together and then, lift the weight of the world, from my shoulders again”).

Editors have handled the potentially tricky second album masterfully. Tracks like Bones and An End has a Start provide traditionally claustrophobic, spiky, Editors fare, while the band also demonstrate several other strings to their musical bow. Smokers outside Hospital Doors is an epic track, while the increased use of the piano on songs such as Racing Rats represents a marked progression in style from debut album The Back Room.

I said earlier that Arctic Monkeys second album left me a bit unfulfilled, but this is not an accusation that can be levelled at Editors. If they continue to make music as good as AEHAS, world domination will surely be within their grasp.

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AOB: Living in the Past

I must confess that I was highly amused to see that Unibond Premier league matches are now being moved because of TV. This is deliciously ironic given that FC United of Manchester, the splinter club set up by the poor downtrodden fans of Man Utd, compete in said division.

Apparently one of the reasons for the formation of FCUM was dissatisfaction at the real Man Utd’s games being moved on a whim by Sky, so of course they are not amused that FCUM’s upcoming fixture with Curzon Ashton is set to kick off at 12.45pm. In fact, the club are asking their fans to boycott the match.

“Football has a massive problem with this at the top level and the last thing we need is for Unibond football to fall of it as well,” whined FCUM Chief Executive Andy Walsh (who I imagine to look exactly like Gary Neville for some reason) in the NLP. “Our fans have turned away from kick off changes in favour of attending matches at 3pm on Saturday.”

For me this sums up everything that is wrong with the FCUM project. No one likes kick off times being messed about with, but unfortunately in football, as in life, things change. While the FCUM hierarchy are busy jumping on their high horse they seem to be forgetting that there are other clubs in their league who are probably looking forward to (albeit limited) extra media coverage as a way to increase their profile.

FCUM is not a fans club in the sense that AFC Wimbledon is. It is more an extended nostalgia trip for a bunch of middle aged men who don’t want to accept that football at the top level is not the same as it was in the 70’s. That’s all very well, but as they continue to progress up the pyramid they will realise that the non-league is not the footballing timewarp they seek. What are they going to do if they get into the Blue Square Premier and their matches start getting moved to Thursday nights? Stamp their feet and tell their fans to march on Setanta HQ?

I’m not saying fans don’t have a right to complain, but equally you can’t have your own way all the time. I’m inclined to agree with Unibond League Chief Executive Duncan Bayley, who labelled FCUM ‘narrow minded’.

“If the league are going to mess about kick-offs our fans will say stuff it,” warns Walsh. I suspect I’m not the only who hopes this happens sooner rather than later.

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U's:5 Linnets:0

Ahh, the wonderful synchronicity of football. Almost a year ago to the day, United slumped to possibly their lowest ebb with a 5-0 defeat in the trophy first round at the hands of those upstarts from across the A14. This year, as if to signify the clubs rebirth, we sauntered into the second round with a 5-0 first round win. The only fly in this particularly happy ointment is that we’ve drawn the upstarts in the second round. Two trips to the Glassworld (I hesitate to call it stadium) in one season is more than anyone should have to bare.

As 5-0 wins go, this one was a bit underwhelming. Not that I’m complaining of course, but United seemed to be on autopilot throughout against industrious but inferior opposition. My enjoyment of the game wasn’t helped by having to stand next to a pair of numpties, presumably not affiliated to either team, who seemed to have come to take the piss out of anything and everything. They left when we went 3-0 up, declaring that ’this is shit’. Weirdo’s.

Anyway, it was good to see skipper Danny Brown back in the fray, forming an industrious looking midfield pairing with Paul Carden . Other changes saw Convery replace Knights, Boylan in for Rendell and Pitt making a welcome return in place of Reed.

Kings Lynn, leaders of the Southern League, included ex-U’s Scott Howie and little John Turner in their line up. It soon became apparent that Howie’s command of his area hadn’t improved much since he was at United. We scored from pretty much our first attack. Courtney Pitt whipped in a cross which LFW and Boylan helped back to Gavin Hoyte, who had plenty of time to blast in his second of the season.

Boylan looked full of running throughout, and set up Convery for what would have been a well worked second goal, only to be denied by the linesmans flag. Minutes later the ex-Canvey striker scampered onto a Carden through ball and somehow managed to get a shot in from an acute angle which forced Howie into a decent save. Pitt then missed a guilt-edged chance to make it two, after Dean West had headed a Gleeson cross onto his own bar. With Howie stranded and the whole goal to aim at, Courtney somehow guided his header onto the post.

Luckily Lemu spared his blushes moments later, lashing in the loose ball after another cross caused chaos amongst the Lynn defence. At the other end, Josh Coulson was enjoying a fairly uneventful home debut, with neither Turner nor the lumbering Jack Defty causing the U’s backline any big problems. The visitors best outlet was the speedy Joe Francis on the left, but he was mostly well marshalled by Gleeson and Potter was largely untroubled.

Lynn, backed by an impressive travelling contingent of 700, actually started the second half pretty well, as United, who had barely got out of second gear during the first half, slipped back into third. But again, Potter wasn’t especially busy, and the best chance fell to Defty, who got the wrong side of Peters but with the keeper at his mercy hit a weak flicked shot straight into the body of DP.

Had that gone in the end of the game may have been somewhat different, but as it was the Quinnster sent on Rendell in place of LFW, and the goal machine soon helped himself, almost apologetically, to two strikes to take his tally for the season to 17. The first came from a Pitt cross, which Scotty steered under Howie from close range. The second was from a little bit further out - an eight-yard shot on the turn after an intelligent header from fellow sub Robbie Willmott.

With the visitors tiring, Boylan got a deserved goal in stoppage time, lunging forward to head past Howie after Rendell had guided a deep Pitt centre back into the six yard box.

So all in all a very successful exercise. It was nice to see a United team doing a professional job on opposition from a lower division rather than huffing and puffing as we would have done in recent seasons. Hopefully we can record a similarly emphatic victory in round two.

Man of the Match: Paul Carden - Rarely wasted a pass and kept things ticking over nicely in the midfield. Hopefully he won’t go back to Accrington too soon.






Quote of the Match: “There was talk of myself and Paul Carden not being able to play in the same team but that's rubbish - it's not exactly Lampard and Gerrard!” The CEN’s star columnist Danny Brown states the obvious. Not that I would want to tell him that of course.

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AOB: U's Blog Festive 19

If 'best of' lists didn't exist, how would the music press fill their pages in December? Inevitably they are full of albums I don't own/haven't heard of/don't like, but I still end up reading them anyway. The Observer Music Monthly list is a good recent example. I have two of their top 50 although I'll hopefully get a couple more for Christmas.

So, seeing as it's December and I have blog space to fill, I've decided to bring you the imaginatively titled U's Blog Festive 19, a list of all the new albums I've aquired this year, of which there are 19.

Most of my new CD's I get free from work, which as you will see from this list, can be both a blessing and a curse. The top ten will follow soon.


19: The Enemy – We’ll live and die in these Towns
Clichéd, unimaginative, indie-crap at its worst. The Enemy’s attempts to pull off grimy, council estate rock are far too polished to sound authentic. I’m sure Kaiser Chiefs fans will love it though.

18: James Blunt – All the Lost Souls
Far be it from me to call one of the biggest selling artists of the 21st century a whiny, middle-class, one trick pony, but there is nothing on ATLS that doesn’t sound like a Back to Bedlam b-side.

17: The Coral – Roots and Echoes
The Coral’s attempt at doing the Beach Boys is a bit of a mish-mash. There are a few good songs but most of the others are instantly forgettable.

16: KT Tunstall – Drastic Fantastic
Tunstall’s sound has changed drastically (hoho) since her debut album, Eye to the Telescope. Is it fantastic? Not really.

15: Chemical Brothers – We are the Night
The Brothers aren’t usually my cup of tea, but this is a surprisingly decent record. Listening to the Salmon Dance is a bizarre yet enjoyable experience.

14: Mika – Life in a Cartoon World
Full-on feel good pop from 07’s answer to the Scissor Sisters. Good for when you want to get in touch with your, ahem, feminine side.

13: Brett Anderson – Brett Anderson
Who doesn’t like Suede? People with no taste that’s who. Unfortunately Brett’s solo debut is a bit too depressing for me, although there are some good songs, notably Loving is Dead.

12: GoodBooks – Control
GoodBooks are a bit of a pretentious bunch, and seem to want to use their album to comment on every right-on cause going. It’s not a bad slice of indie-pop though, despite some slightly suspect lyrics.

11: Stars – In our Bedrooms after the War
Only just got this, and if I’d listened to it a bit more I suspect it would be higher in the list. My Favourite Book, in particular, has made a good early impression.

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Things footballers shouldn't be doing, Part One

Did anyone see that programme on Channel Four last night about erotic blogs? I must confess I only watched for about five minutes, but I did hear that the original sex blogger, Girl with a one-track Mind, managed to garner about 100,000 readers with tales of her sex-ploits.

With this in mind, I’ve decided to make U’s Blog a little bit more risqué, and those offended by the sight of bare male flesh would be advised to look away now.

I’m not an avid reader of Heat magazine, but it has been brought to my attention that one of our former players is currently adorning its pages. Now I know footballers have a lot of time of their hands, but traditionally they fill it by going to bookies, playing on the Playstation, or seducing starstruck teenage girls. What they don’t do is take semi-naked pictures of themselves and enter competitions in national magazines.

So one might consider Omer Riza, one time United goal getter and now Turkish Superleague star, to be something of a pioneer, having recently triumphed in Heat’s torso of the year competition. Photographic evidence is below, but it’s not for the faint hearted:

Judging by the picture, Omer would also be a shoe-in for any bushiest eyebrows award going. In his biog he tries to claim his wife sent the picture in, but given the rampant ego's possessed by most of the footballing fraternity I wouldn't be so sure it wasn't a self-submission. He also appears to be threatening to pose naked for the magazine’s Christmas shoot, except for a “carefully positioned Santa hat”. The mind boggles.

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Harriers:1 U's:0 - Home comforts

For the first time in my life last night, I was an armchair fan. And it was quite nice actually, I can see why so many people do it. It wasn’t cold, I could enjoy a nice glass of wine during the game, and at half time I put my washing out rather than sitting and twiddling my thumbs waiting for the game to start.

Actually, who am I kidding, I’d have much rather been at the game. But watching United on TV was a novel experience, spoiled by the fact that we lost for only the second time this season.

The starting line up revealed a few surprises, with Josh Coulson making his full in place of Morrison, who was benched along with Pitt and Boylan, who were replaced by Knights and Leo. LFW’s inclusion was presumably down to the atrocious conditions, which would have surely seen the game postponed had the camera’s not been in attendance.

Any fears about the number of changes seemed unfounded as United dominated the first half. Although Mark Creighton hit the bar for the home side early on, United soon took control, with Knights to the fore, dropping off the front and finding space effectively. Lemu missed a good chance on the turn, before the Yeovil loanee fired wide from the edge of the box when he should have worked Kiddy keeper Scott Bevan. Then just on the stroke of half time Knights and Wolleaston combined neatly, but the latter’s shot was touched onto the post by Bevan. “If that had gone in it would have been 1-0” squealed the ever-insightful Paul Parker (pictured left). Lucky he’s around to explain the games finer points to us eh.

Anyway, the second half continued in a similar vein, as United pinned their hosts back despite playing into gale-force winds. Inspired play from Knights set up Wolly for a shot that beat the keeper and rolled agonisingly wide. Then, out of the blue, Kiddy scored. Knights was penalised for a foul on Russell Penn, and as the free kick was pumped into the area, the United defence all rushed out en masse to catch the attackers offside. All that is, except for Lemu, who didn’t move, and allowed a grateful Justin Richards to receive the ball and feed Iysden Christie, who fired a first time shot past Potter, despite being a good three or four yards offside. A shambles of a goal all round. 1-0.

The match resumed its familiar pattern, but you began to get the feeling United were never going to score. LFW missed another good chance, before being replaced by Boylan, who almost made an immediate impact. Latching onto a looping pass, he fired in a shot that was parried by Bevan, who then did magnificently to block Peters follow up, before Paul Bignot cleared the ball off the line. Rendell was then denied by the big keeper before a looping Peters effort beat him but clattered off the underside of the bar. This was the last clear chance, as United pressed hard in the last ten minutes but found Bevan equal to everything they could throw at him.

I suppose there have been a few games this year where we’ve despite not being brilliant, so the reverse was bound to happen eventually. I’m not one to blame luck – Kidderminster weren’t lucky to win because they took their chance when it came along and we didn’t take ours. Hopefully the players won’t be too downhearted and we can get back to winning ways in the upcoming cup games before the league programme resumes on Boxing Day.

Given JQ’s post match comments, Michael Morrison’s days at the club appear to be numbered. This is disappointing, if not particularly surprising, news, and I hope our fans aren’t too harsh on Morro for wanting to better himself. He served the club well and hopefully we can get a decent-ish price for him in the transfer window. Josh Coulson enjoyed an assured debut, and if Jimmy can add some experience to the squad in January, I don’t think his departure will cause too much disruption to our promotion push.

Man of the Match: Darryl Knights – Always a threat and at the heart of most of our best attacks. Shame he didn’t put that chance away in the first half.

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AOB: Paper Talk

Updates to this blog have been a bit sporadic of late, mainly because I’ve been having to actually do some work rather than spending my time thinking about which United players resemble wild animals (I’ve got a new one up my sleeve lookalike fans). Hopefully I’ll get back in the swing of things over the next couple of weeks.

Being in the Conference doesn’t have much going for it when compared to the heady heights of League Two. I’ve whinged about the shambolic organisation of the division before, and after tonight’s match at Kiddy we face two weeks without a league game due to some joke cup competitions that nobody gives a monkeys about.

However, one of the joys of being non-league is the increased media coverage available. We have plenty of televised matches (albeit on Setanta, an organisation so shoddy one could write) and two national newspapers dedicated to the non-league football – The well established Non-League Paper (NLP) and new kid on the block Non-League Today (NLT).

So far this season I have usually been buying The NLP, partly out of loyalty and partly because I think the front page of NLT looks a bit cheap and nasty. However, this weekend I happened to end up with both publications so can give a brief overview of their respective merits.

As I said, I don’t like the front page of NLT – it’s too colourful and it looks like a comic. There’s a similar feeling inside, with plenty of pictures interspersing the text, so if such things put you off then it isn’t the newspaper for you. Aside from this there’s loads to read, including columns from U’s past and present, with goal-poacher turned wannabe hack Tom Youngs contributing a piece about talented Youngs-ters (hoho), and our current chief scout (and, judging by his photo, part time sunbed tester) Willy Wordsworth’s wicked whispers. To complete the tabloidy effect there are scantily clad ladies on page three.

The NLP is an altogether more serene affair, with less colour and less pictures. Regular columnists include Stuart Hammonds, who has great knowledge of the non-league and has done a couple of interesting pieces on United recently, and the notorious Graham Westley, who always has plenty to say, albeit while shamelessly promoting himself at every opportunity.

Both are good publications, and if we do get promoted this season I will miss the kind of coverage they provide. As for which is better, well I think that depends on what you’re looking for. NLT goes for a broader selection of short articles, with lots of news snippets and short opinion pieces. The NLP takes a less-is-more approach, with better in-depth articles and more match reports, but less news coverage. A lot of the news stories in NLT are available on their excellent website anyway, so for now I think I’ll be sticking with the NLP, but it’s good to know they have some competent competition to keep them on their toes.

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U's:1 Terras:0

Hopefully our third round tie with Wolves will produce the same result as our last visit to Molineux. That match, in 1993, saw United snatch a 2-1 win with a late Chris Leadbitter goal.

Although an away win is probably unlikely on this occasion, it should be a good day out and a decent payday for the club. This blog was half expecting an uninspiring draw against a League One or Two side so it's nice to be looking forward to a trip to a relatively big club.

There wasn't much of the "Magic of the Cup™" in evidence at the Abbey on Saturday, as United laboured to a 1-0 win over hard working but limited opposition.

The biggest crowd of the season so far meant kick off was delayed by 15 minutes, as queues of people, eager to get their hands on priority vouchers for any big third round tie, snaked down Newmarket Road. JQ made a couple of changes, recalling Pitt and Hoyte for Convery (dropped) and Albrighton (injured).

And big Gav almost opened the scoring early on with a thunderous 25-yard free kick which was turned over the bar by visiting keeper Jason Matthews.

Weymouth were operating a five man midfield in attempt to stifle United, and although this worked fairly well throughout the match, it left the visitors almost totally devoid of any attacking threat. The talented Stuart Beavon worked hard, but too often lacked support, and when he did fashion a chance for his team, Paulo Vernazza's header was easily saved by Danny Potter.

United were playing with the wind at their backs, and this was particularly noticeable when poor old Matthews was taking goal kicks. Time after time his long punts forward soared into touch on the left hand side, much to the frustration of his manager and team mates.

Scott Rendell scored the only goal of the game in 28th minute. Controlling a long ball forward, United's top scorer cleverly flicked the ball over the head of Justin Roberts and made for goal. As he was about to pull the trigger, Roberts clumsily bundled him over from behind just inside the box. From where I was standing it looked a definite penalty, and the young striker confidently dispatched the spot kick for his 15 th goal of the season, sending Matthews the wrong way.

After that United continued to press, but didn't trouble Matthews as much as they should've. Courtney Pitt cut a frustrated figure on the left hand side, with United players choosing to shoot rather than pass to the unmarked winger on several occasions. Perhaps this affected Courtney's confidence, because when he finally did lead a breakaway, he held onto the ball for too long and was dispossessed when an early pass would have put Boylan clear on goal.

Anyone hoping that the U's might go on and get somewhere close to the seven goals we fired past Weymouth last season was to be disappointed. Although we won a couple of corners in the early stages, the second half soon fell into a pattern that will be familiar to anyone who attended the Salisbury game earlier this year:

1: Weymouth attack, and put in a hopeful long ball/throw/cross.
2: United defend comfortably and kick it straight back to Weymouth.
3: Repeat for 30 minutes until everyone is bored stiff.

Carden was quietly impressive in midfield, winning plenty of tackles and breaking up the play well, but with neither Wolleaston or Reed doing much of note the ball rarely stuck in the United midfield, and the front two became increasingly isolated.

Although Weymouth didn't look especially threatening, it was a dangerous game to play with the score at 1-0. The introduction of Knights and Lemu did little to change things, and in the end joy was mixed with relief when the ref brought proceedings to a close and confirmed United's place in round three.

Of course the important thing was to get the result, and although United were some way below their best, I doubt many people will remember that when the teams run out at Molineux on January 5th.

It's hard to put a finger on exactly why we were so lacklustre, but when Brown and Albrighton are missing we seem to lack a little bit of drive at times. This blog is a big fan of Danny Potter, but questions whether having a captain who spends much of his time away from the action is a particularly good idea. If Albrighton is going to miss many more games, maybe JQ should look to give the armband to someone else.

Man of the Match: Mark Peters - not a lot of outstanding candidates to be honest, but Peters held the defence together manfully.

Lookalike of the Match: The linesman on the Habbin side in the second half was a dead ringer for Simon Cowell, complete with the self-satisfied perma-grin. He did have his shorts at a normal level though.

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