Wrexham: 2 - 2 U's & expungement appeal

Confession time: When I was younger, I used to name Aston Villa as my second team.

I've seen the error of my ways as I've grown older, but when I was at school it seemed acceptable to have a Premiership team with whom to allign myself for the sake of easy playground banter.

I'm not sure why I chose Villa, possibly because like United they never win anything, or because of the funny name/unusual kit. Either way, the 12-year old me used to get quite happy on the rare occasion Savo Milosevic found the net.

Because of my Villa daliance, I was a big fan of Dean Saunders the player. It's a shame then that Saunders the manager is a buffoon of Lewer-esque proportions. Have a listen to this interview carried out following our 2-2 draw on Saturday, he sounds more bitter than a box of lemons.

Anyway, it sounds like it was another good comeback from the U's, and a great equaliser from young Marriott, which you can see above courtesy of youtube fottage king MatBro51. I also notice we've taken the momentous step of overtaking the "biggest club in Cambridge" in the league table, so at least this season hasn't been a complete waste of time.

Speaking of wasting time, United announced on Friday that they are one of ten clubs appealing the decision to expunge Chester from the record books, a move which has led to much righteous indignation amongst users of the CUFC messageboard.

If those within the club feel that strongly about it then it's worth a try I suppose. But seeing as the six points will make little difference to our situation either way I personally don't see the point in us joining in with Oxford, Stevenage, et al in making a fuss. I also don't like our chances of success, as surely the FA will be very reluctant to make a ruling in favour of changing the table for a third time this season.

One thing I do hope is that we're not paying for this appeal in any way. At a time when the fans are trying to find to cash to buy the ground back, I would hate to think the club are wasting their cash on an appeal which is surely doomed to failure.

*To submit your 20-word match reports on the Wrexham match, email cufcblog@googlemail.com, visit the U's Blog twitter page, or leave a comment under this post.

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D-Day for Chester

Take-over bids by dodgy-looking Danish consortiums not withstanding, we should know in the next few hours whether or not Chester are departing the Conference, taking with them six precious points earned by Lingy's amber army earlier in the season.

I'll be pretty annoyed if the Blues do get the booted out, mainly because it means the 90+ minutes spent at that awful, awful, match we won 1-0 in December will have been a complete waste of time. But putting that aside, Chester is a mess that won't get any better, and must be put out of its misery. That there is even any doubt as to whether the life-support machine is going to be switched off just goes to prove what a complete shambles the The Conference is.

Because as you probably know, the fate of the Blues has been left in the hands of the member clubs, who will meet at Rushden today to consider what to do. I like to imagine all the chairmen sitting in a row, Britain's Got Talent style, and delivering their verdict via a big illuminated red cross displayed above their head, but maybe that's just me. Certainly some chairmen I could name have about as much charm as Piers Morgan, and are almost as smug.

Mansfield have already confirmed they will be voting selfishly to keep Chester - and their points - and I would hope United will do the same, or at least abstain. After all, what else can we possibly do? It's not right, but it would be stupid for a Turkey to vote for Christmas. If Chester do survive, lets hope the Conference board grow a pair and change their own rules, because expecting members to vote objectively on the future of a competitor is patently ridiculous.

Meanwhile United will go in search of that elusive win against Tamworth tomorrow without the services of Robbie Willmott, who has apparently been ruled for the rest of the season with a knee problem. No great loss if you ask me, but it does leave United short in wide areas. According to the CN Lingy is considering whether to deploy Rory McAuley or Sam Ives on the right of midfield, but if it was me I think I'd be tempted to bring in Daryl Coakley and push Aiden Palmer up into midfield. Palmer is a tricky customer, and probably the best crosser we have, and would also give us a bit of pace which the team will lacks sans-Willmott.

Whatever the line up, a win is long overdue, and we're not likely to get a better chance than against a Tamworth side whose form is nearly as bad as our own. 'Mon United.

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Uh oh, we're in trouble, Chester's demise could burst our bubble

Another day, another defeat to some shite team I hadn't even heard of five years ago.

Even Radio Cambridgeshire seem to realise how poor we have become, mercifully deciding to stop broadcasting live commentary of last night's 2-1 defeat at Salisbury and blaming "technical issues". Listening to 90 minutes of static would have probably been more enjoyable than the match.

At least it was only in the trophy, but with every passing defeat the pressure continues to mount on Lingy's slender shoulders. Personally I still think he'll turn it round and am unconvinced that another managerial change would be particularly constructive; you might get an improvement in the short term but the new man would encounter the same problems as the present incumbent - someone else's players, someone else's assistant manager, and no money with which to remedy either situation. Certainly bringing in a long ball merchant - the kind of manager that is usually successful in a crisis situation - like the currently unemployed Mark Cooper is unlikely to be effective with the squad we have.

And please put me right if you think I'm being a bit blaze, but I'm still confident we're in little danger of being relegated. Chester and Grays are already down, and over the course of the next 16 games there are bound to be at least two other teams who are shitter than us. However, I'll be slightly less confident if Chester go to the wall, which looks a distinct possibility after they failed to fulfill their fixture last night. As most people are probably aware, losing the six points we nicked off the Deva Stadium outfit this season would leave us just one point and two places clear of the drop zone.

For once you can't entirely blame the Conference administrators for the Chester situation - afterall they inherited this problem in the summer from the football league. However, they shouldn't have let them start the season, and having allowed them to come this far I expect they're going to give them every chance to finish it in some form or other. Blue Square have yet to renew their title sponsorship deal, and acquiring a new backer for the league would be rendered all the more difficult if it were forced to limp through to end of the season minus one member. With this in mind I don't think we should get too despondant just yet; keep the faith people, we'll be fine. Maybe.

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U's:1 Blues:0

On Tuesday night someone on the messageboard started a thread about the best games United have been involved in over the last decade.

Suffice to say that our 1-0 win over Chester will not be joining the list, but it would fit easily into the top ten worst football matches United have played, be it in the last ten years or in the history of the world. In fact, it would probably be up there in the top ten worst ways to spend two hours of your life, just above going for a drive with Tiger Woods or taking a leisurely boat trip into Iranian territorial waters.

I'd like to say I'm exagerating for comedic effect, but anyone who was there will confirm that I'm not. Suitable adjectives do not exist to describe how dreadful it was - 22 supposedly professional footballers lumping the ball back and fourth to one another with little quality or imagination on display.

In fairness both teams were depleted, Chester because of their well documented financial problems, and United due to a spate of injuries and suspensions which robbed them of the services of Gleeson, Tonkin, and Hatswell. Their CRC-bred replacements, McAuley, Coulson, and Coakley, all performed pretty well, though the full backs gave little support to the wide players when we were on the attack, meaning that Chester's five man midfield nullified the threat of Pitt and Willmott fairly comfortably.

Returning midfield duo Carden and Reason were fairly annoymous, and we looked much better when Ives joined the fray in place of the injured McAuley. I usually stick up for Reason but on this occasion I can offer no excuses for the terrible nature of his performance. I struggle to see how Lingy could justify starting him in the next game.

Meanwhile Crow and Holroyd toiled away up front with no great success, although this partly due to the paucity of the "service" being provided by their team mates. Chester had the best chances of the first half, with Owens rolling a tame shot into the arms of Potter and Chadwick doing likewise from an even better position.

United could have had a free kick in the box in first couple of minutes of part two, when Danby picked up what appeared to be a back pass under pressure from Holroyd. But after a lengthy discussion with his assistant, the ref strangely gave Chester a free kick, presumably for Super Chris's challenge on the visiting number one.

Nothing much else happened until Phillips and Marriott came on to liven things up. Despite looking a bit like a less grumpy version of Andy Murray, Maz appears to be a real prospect, and once again displayed the kind of instinctive eye for goal that has brought him so much success in the Ridgeons League. He almost netted the winner when he picked the ball up just outside the area, and sent a delicious chip over the keeper but also just over the bar.

He was eventually involved in the winner, being brought down on the left for a free kick, which Willmott took and delivered onto the head of Crowy, who beat Danby to the ball and flicked it into the net. The decision to come out for the ball looked to be a poor one from the keeper, and it was certainly a costly mistake for his team and their band of 43 travelling fans.

So yeah, we'll take the points and move swiftly on I think, there's no way we can be that bad again. Lingy's selection for Saturday will be an interesting one - if I was Ives I'd be thoroughly downhearted if I were benched again in favour of Reason, although continuing injury problems at right back may mean both are pressed into service, with Cardy on defensive duty. And with Hatswell available again too, will the boss disrupt the central defensive partnership which kept our first clean sheet in five games? Going on his previous choices, my guess is he probably will.

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