United out to avoid hairy moments at Hayes

I've had a couple of shocks to the system this week.

One was the completely unexpected, but truly marvellous, beard sported by David Beckham in England's 3-0 win over Belarus. You don't see many fully bearded footballers these days, let alone those with facial hair of a different colour to that on top of their head. It impressed watching Sunderland manager Steve Bruce so much that he decided to give the former England skipper the Man of the Match award, despite the fact that he [Beckham] was only on the field for half an hour. Well done Becks.

The other was Danny Crow's revelation that he "doesn't start scoring till October". This will come as a shock to United fans, most of whom probably didn't realise that he starts scoring at all. I did laugh when I heard Crowy labelled "CUFC's Carlos Tevez" on Radio Cambs the other day, because the similarities between the two are becoming more obvious by the week: Neither of them score many goals, but do run around a lot to no great effect, and get a lot of love from fans for it. Both are short and, er, a bit dumpy, and both have increasingly preposterous hairbands. Hopefully Crowy has no plans to join a band playing shantytown/urban music, I'm not sure the world is ready for that.

After that superb goal last week I shouldn't mock I suppose. And Carlos Crow and his team mates have a good chance to add to their respective goal tallies tomorrow when we face lowly Hayes and Yeading. With Willmott and Parky set to be sidelined, it will be interesting to see which way Lingy chooses to go; will he pick the obvious replacement, Jordan Patrick, or will he decide to play the slightly more experienced Sam Ives out of position?

For me this would seem like the ideal opportunity to blood JP against opposition who, with all due respect, are unlikely to be the strongest we encounter this season. But on the evidence of his reign so far, I think ML will opt for the safety-first option of Ives. Hayes have only picked up one point from a possible 18 in their last six games, so regardless of the line up, a United win is really the only acceptable result.

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In, out, in, out, shake it all about

Much like a government ministers expenses claim, the turnover of players at United in the last few days has been a lot higher than expected.

Probably the most inevitable departure was that of Darren Quinton, who ceased to serve a purpose about two years ago (ie, when we started getting some half decent players). I always had high hopes for Quints in the early days, but a combination of injuries and lack of growth have probably curtailed his chances of making it as a pro. Interestingly enough, John Turner, who must be of a similar age, had the same problems, and it was perhaps a failing of our previous youth system that many of the players it produced have been unable to cope with the physical side of the game.

The same can't be said of the current CRC set up, whose players are forged in granite after a couple of years battling against the cloggers of the Ridgeons League. I don't recall ever seeing Adam Marriott, Jordan Patrick, or Sam Ives, play, but if they are of similar quality to the likes of Josh Coulson and Rory MacAuley then they'll do ok. Georgie Rolls has said on several occasions that the budget is going to be cut next term, so I guess the trio will all have a supporting role to play in what will hopefully be our glorious first season back in League Two.

Shame to see Fazzer on the way out as well, and I hope that won't be the last we see of him. Although he hasn't often stood out this year, I don't think the Brabinator has given him a fair crack of the whip, and I've seen little from either Challinor of McMahon to suggest that they are superior players. He's much too good for City anyway, and with a bit of luck he'll be back in the reckoning next term.

Thanks to Setanta's faffing, I can't make it to Woking tonight, so will be watching the match on TV instead. No need to worry about the result though, as Cards boss Phil Gilchrist has already written the match off as "unwinnable". Either that, or he's employing some very clever Alex Ferguson-style mind games: "We need to focus on what I think are the winnable games. Of course I didn’t expect us to lose in the way we did at Kidderminster, but that wasn’t a game where realistically we thought we could win because of the form they are in. It’s the same with the Cambridge United," he told the Woking News and Mail. I bet he's great at parties.

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