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.