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.