Stuff

Hello all. I'm back from holiday and have returned to a country gripped by ELECTION FEVER. Sort of.

As far as I can tell this election campaign so far has been much like United's season - boring, much too long, and featuring a cast incompetents, none of whom are capable of delivering a positive outcome. Sadly the main difference is that while Lingy can ditch his underperformers in a few weeks time when their present deals expire, one of the political parties is going to be given a new five-year contract to run the country. The mind boggles.

Anyway, in my absence the Mighty U's have won a pointless game against Mansfield (highlights below, looks like it was a cracker), and lost pointless games at Gateshead and Salisbury.



Lingy has been handed his budget for next year, which he considers will put United in the top-eight of the spending league table; "I'd say it's in the top eight budgets in the Conference and I'm happy with that, although I'd say it's nearer eighth than first. In terms of 'is the amount I can spend better than when I came here?', I'd say yes," he told the CN last week.

Sticking to budgets hasn't exactly been United's forte in the last few years, but assuming we can maintain this level of spending, it sounds like a sensible basis on which to build a promotion push. The likes of Dagenham, Aldershot, and (to an extent) Burton have shown that it isn't necessarily the team with the most money that wins this league, and indeed tonight's opponents Oxford have totally lost their momentum since they made several expensive, high profile, additions to their squad in the January transfer window.

It will be interesting to see how a United side, boosted by the return from injury of Saah, Gleeson, Carden, and Crow, fares against the fake U's. We matched them when they came to the Abbey earlier in the season, and hopefully we can pick up at least another point at the Kassam.

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U's:2 Stags:1

Aren't last minute goals great?

There's nothing better than an injury time winner to send you home from a football match in a good mood. Conversely, there's nothing worse than going away and succumbing to a late strike. We've all been there, so it's hard not to feel a little bit sorry for the travelling Mansfield fans who were at last nights match. Only a little bit though.

United put in a display that the comeback kids of 2007/08 would have been proud of to see off the challenge of the swiftly improving Stags. Mansfield have been one of the divisions form sides since David Holdsworth took over just after Christmas, and if they continue to perform as they did last night they will surely be there or there abouts next season. Holdsworth's team play what is probably the ideal style for the Conference; strong, direct, and no-nonsense at the back, but fast and fluid in the final third. The only thing they lacked was a killer touch in front of goal, with neither Mark Stallard nor spot kick king Rob Duffy (pen) doing much in open play. The imminent arrival of everyones favourite camera licker, Daryl Clare, could make the difference in that department though.

The visitors were much the better side in the first, with United flagging, perhaps due to a combination of tiredness, and complacency following Saturday's excellent win. Danny Potter had to turn a free kick from pint size winger Ryan Williams onto the crossbar after it deflected off Hatswell, and from the resulting corner it took a good block from a United defender to thwart Scott Gardner, whose shot from 12 yards appeared to be goalbound.

Too many passes were going astray from a United perspective, and our best moments of the half both came from set pieces, with Rendell turning well but seeing a shot blocked after latching onto a Hatswell free kick, and Willmott heading wide from a Pitt corner.

But just as it looked like United were getting a foothold in the match, Mansfield scored. The referee, who seemed set on compensating for Williams' lack of height by giving him loads of free kicks, awarded another soft one near the left touchline. The winger's cross was a good one, whipped in towards the far post, where Duffy (pen) swooped to head past Potter. He seemed to quite enjoy the goal, and received an inevitable booking for his over-zealous celebration in front of the NRE.

At this time we appeared to be in some trouble, but this team seems to have forgotten how to lose at the moment, and came out for the second half in much more purposeful mood. And as against Burton, our purpose was rewarded with an early goal. Just four minutes of the half had elapsed when a nice move involving Carden and Gleeson saw the ball passed out to Willmott. He cut inside and stood up a tempting cross which a suspiciously offside looking Rendell nodded past Alan Marriott. To misquote Girls Aloud, he's just a goal machine. 1-1.

Now it was all United, with Marriott saving well from Hatswell, and seeing a Rendell volley fly wide. The Stags still looked dangerous on the break, and Nathan Arnold almost scored goal of the season when he ran from the edge of his own box, swapped passes with Jonathan D'Layrea, but shot just wide. But their attacks were becoming fewer and further between, and Reason gave us a taste of what was to come when he volleyed narrowly wide from the edge of the box.

Chris Holroyd, who put in another lively stint up front, was forced to leave the pitch with a bloody nose moments later after taking a blow to the face; hopefully there's no permanent damage done to his boyish good looks. He was replaced by the returning Parky, who came close to a goal when he met Courtney Pitt's cross only to be denied by a lunging block from Paul Mayo.

At this stage the game looked set to end in amber frustration, with Marriott pulling off a great stop to foil Reason's blast, and Rendell just failing to connect properly with a knock down from sub Danny Crow.

But as we entered the third minute of stoppage time, the Ipswich loanee saw another shot deflected behind for a corner. Carden curled the flag kick into the back post, Hats nodded the ball back into the danger zone and Reason raced in to flick the ball past Marriott. Wooooooooo, 2-1.

At almost the exact same moment somewhere in the frozen north, Barrow's Mark Boyd was scoring a wondergoal to sink Histon, a result which made our win even sweeter. With the gap between ourselves and Burton now down to a not-that-big-actually seven points, it will be interesting to see how the Brewers react tonight at Ebbsfleet. They're not really under pressure yet, but if they drop points in their upcoming fixtures against some of the divisions lesser lights, that glimmer of hope which the Brabinator is clinging onto might start to get a bit bigger. Bounce bounce!

Man of the Match: Scott Rendell - After looking off-colour on Saturday, Scotty was back to his best last night, linking play brilliantly and netting the all important equaliser.

Crap celebration of the Match: Although I don't approve of kill-joy ref's carding players for their goal celebrations, Duffy (pen)'s star jumping effort probably deserved a yellow for rubbishness alone.

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Mansfield

Much as I'm not a big fan of the Brabinator's pre and post game bore-a-thons, at least our leader doesn't yet talk about himself in the third person.

At our lowly level of football, it usually indicates that the ego of the individual in question is running riot. Steve Evans, the self appointed "Blue Square Special One", is the best example of course, but it seems that David Holdsworth, manager of tonight's opponents Mansfield, is already treading a similar path.

"He has brought into David Holdsworth and into Mansfield Town Football Club," he told the Mansfield Chad, referring to his goalkeeper Alan Marriott's decision to sign an extended contract. One suspects that the potential alternative of being unemployed was a more significant motivating factor in Marriott's decision.

But who am I to argue with Holdsworth who, judging by this video on the Mansfield official website, is quite an intimidating character. In fact, in the unlikely event that a royal rumble is ever organised between Conference managers, I'd probably back him and the Brabinator to be the last men standing. That's assuming Evans doesn't sit on all the other competitors that is.

Shares in David Holdsworth will almost certainly be on the rise if his team can end United's eight game unbeaten streak. I notice they don't concede a lot of goals, and we tend to struggle against sides who, to borrow Jose Mourinho's classic phrase, "park the bus". But it does seem that Holdsworth will be employing his favoured 4-3-3 formation, which could give United's wingers a bit of space to operate in. I guess it will be a tight game either way, so lets hope we come out on top.

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back onto the football pitch

Bloody snow. Much like Eczema, you think it's gone then suddenly it turns up again. I tuned in to Ebbsfleet - Burton last night in the hope of catching a glimpse of an orange ball (see my earlier post), and was amused to see that the ref had started the game with a white ball, which was barely visible on the increasingly snow-covered playing surface. Genius.

Although it (the snow) appears to be thawing fast, Ian Darler was on Histon FM this morning speaking in a fairly downbeat terms about the likelihood that tomorrows game with Mansfield will go ahead, and indeed a pitch inspection has been scheduled for 4.15pm this afternoon, so it's sounding ominous. Hopefully we will play another match at some point, I'm beginning to forget what some of our players look like.

If the game does happen, United will be looking for another three points to keep up the pressure on Roy Macfarlands Burton Albion, who will be within a mere 18 points of the Mighty U's should we win tomorrow. "Even though it looks like a foregone conclusion with Burton, we're not giving up," a defiant Brabinator told this mornings Evening News, evoking memories of similarly deluded blabber from JQ at this time last season.

"It would be silly to think there's an over-realistic chance of doing it, but that's what we've got to aim for," he added, before getting in an early contender for the Stating the bleedin' Obvious Award 2009 (sponsored by Alan Shearer); "We just need to win as many games as we can and see where that takes us at the end of the season." A radical new direction for a football team to take, I'm sure you'll agree.

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Stags:1 U's:1

Every day I travel down the A1198 to work, and almost every day, without fail, I get held up behind a tractor, a horse box, a caravan, or a slow moving lorry, delaying my progress and giving me mild road rage.

So you can imagine my displeasure when we got stuck behind ALL FOUR of the unholy quartet on the one-carriageway road into Mansfield on Saturday. Having already taken 45 minutes to get four miles along the A1 due to stupid roadworks, it probably wasn't a great surprise that we missed kick off.

Luckily nothing had happened in the first couple of minutes. United had lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, with Felino Jardim making a welcome return wide left, with Jon Challinor wide-ish right ahead of Dan Gleeson. However, Challinor's tendency to wander inside meant Glees was often exposed to the probings of Alex Jeannin and Michael Blackwood. Jason Lee headed the home sides best chance over the bar, while at the other end Evil perhaps should have done better with a header from a Jardim free kick.

Big Lee was described as a "veteran striker" by the non-league paper on Sunday, a statement which worryingly means I'll qualify for veteran status next April. Anyway, he got through plenty of work given that he had apparently been sick all week, linking up well on occasions with Holroyd and the tricky Jardim. However, none of these three were involved directly in our goal, which stemmed from a Tonkin long throw. With Bolland lurking at the near post, it was partially cleared by a defender as far as Danny Brown on the edge of the box, who unleashed a stonking volley across the keeper into the far corner. Back of the net. 1-0.

The Stags were never going to surrender their 100 per cent home record lightly, and they pushed United back in the opening stages of the second half, aided by penickity refereeing of Mr Brown, who seemed determined to disrupt the flow of play wherever possible. Blackwood and Nathan Arnold were the chief tormentors of the U's backline, and we were served notice of what was to come when Blackwood was given a free kick on the edge of the box after going to ground very easily.

Moments later, Arnold was awarded a dubious set piece in an almost identical position on the other side of the field. He swung the ball over to the back stick, where Alan O'Hare climbed above the otherwise immaculate Wayne Hatswell to head home the equaliser. 1-1.

After that it was mostly United on the front foot, with Evil and Hatswell shooting wide and the former having a goal disallowed for offside after he had wandered round the keeper and poked the ball into the empty net. An enterprising Holroyd dash saw him shoot disappointingly wide, and there was time for Danny Crow to make a positive ten minute cameo. He already looks fitter after a week of training with the squad, and will hopefully be a good addition once he's fully up to speed.

The U's could've stolen it with literally the last kick of the game when Jardim's cross was helped onto Evil on the left of the box. But his shot was blocked by O'Hare, and seconds later the final whistle sounded.

Mansfield were the best side I've seen so far this year, so we've got to look at this as a point gained, even thought it could have been so much more. We could with three points against Oxford tonight though, there have been a few too many draws lately.

Man of the Match: Felino Jardim - At times he had three of four players on his tail, but somehow still came away with the ball. It seems the rest has done him good.







Losers of the Match: The over-zealous Mansfield stewards, whose insistence that everyone sit down (while the Mansfield fans remained standing) caused some unnecessary aggro. A big special well done to the steward who spent five minutes offering to "settle things outside" with several United fans. Very professional eh?

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