Cambridge United v Barnet

[Aber gas]

Harrison and Taylor for Gaffney? Sure mate. Sounds about right to me

You can have Harrison and Easter maybe
Seriously though mate, watch his goals tonight, the first is brilliant. I can't quite believe you let him come here.

 

[Vanni]

To clarify my earlier post, I feel that whilst we're getting results(that's 5 wins and a draw now), and it's easy for some of our fans to get carried away, our performances are nowhere near good enough to sustain a play off push. Main problem seems to be that we only start playing after we score, and this is simply not good enough. I'm not just talking about today, though it is a perfect example, but also to some of our recent matches.

 

[Laker]

I have no idea how we won that today, we were very poor and save for the last 20 mins we never looked like scoring. If Akinde had put that away to make it 2-0 there was no way we were coming back.

So amazingly we are now 1 point off the play offs and I have no idea how we've managed it. Great stuff.

Re Gaffney. Sadly for Rovers, Williamson is being recalled by Gillingham so Gaffney will be needed, not just wanted. And he's too good not to have back, I'm not surprised by his run.

 

[rudebwoyben]

This is literally so fucking typical of this team this season. Actually not the team, its Allen and his fucking tactics.

We don't beat teams, they beat themselves whenever we get points. This season is a shambles. How many more fucking times are we going to squander a lead? Got away with it against Crawley because their defender lost his head, and Newport shat all over us with 10 men. This is ridiculous and its Allen to blame.

I'm so pissed off but more because I let myself believe this lead might be different.

ALLEN OUT!

I think it would be better for us if he stayed as manager til the end of the season before handing over the reins to someone who can get the team playing at a higher standard of quality. Allen has got us playing stodge. Granted, it can be very good stodge but it won't produce moments of quality like the two that resulted in Cambridge Utd goals.

 

[SVH]

Wow, I've not seen the Abbey rocking like that since the Man United game. If you had told me that on 70 mins I would have told you to do one but what a win that is.

Teams who win but play awful are teams that go on and gatecrash the play-off party. I agree in terms of not playing well for 90 mins but this is League Two, not many others do either. We now have a team united and that grit and determination to get 3 points despite being out on their feet after 2 games in 3 days.

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Why the hell can't we make the playoffs Vanni? How many good teams have you seen us play this season? I'd put Barnet in the top 3 based on today and they're in the bottom third of the league! We built a playoff calibre squad and had a manager who got nothing from them and sucked the life out of them, Derry is starting to get the best out of them and the confidemce looks to have been restored, but we're nowhere near finished yet, we still have no idea what our best system is but we've got 16 points out of 18! Imagine what will happen when we do figure it out....

Make the right moves in January and we'll have a very good chance. The performance was poor today but the resilience was incredible, not enjoyed 60 seconds of football like that in a while!

 

[SVH]

Don't listen to Vanni. All he posts is negative rubbish.

 

[Vanni]

Better than your optimistic bullshit SVH.

 

[Vanni]

Tom - that's fair enough I suppose. Problem is like I said earlier, the players only start playing when they get a goal, look at some of our recent matches for evidence. What happens if they don't score or when they go 2-0 down like they nearly did today? They also can't get over this little problem of playing only in patches, normally it's just one half of a match, today they only played for 20 mins, and luckily for us Barnet weren't 3-0 up by the time our players decided to show up. Still, I suppose this could be interpreted both ways. Some will say we're winning without playing at our best, others will say we're lucky.

But, biggest problem is the loan players we have. Williamson's going back and today I heard the Gaffney to Rovers rumour. Then there's Ledson. Will Derry be able to bring in capable replacements? Atm, I'm keeping my feet on the ground and will get my hopes up whenever the players learn to play well for 3/4 of the match, and depending on who we lose/keep in Jan. Then there's also the little thing of how will the players respond when we are defeated after this little good run.

I'm a realist, and while I believe we can mount a challenge, I prefer not to think about the play offs for now. We've been in this position in the past, and we either threw it away or went on to good things, so excuse me if I'm being a bit cautious.

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Teams go 2-0 down whether they're top or bottom, I suspect we'd have lost today but at some point in the future we'll go 2-0 down and win. Today was the first time we've won having coming from behind in what seems like forever, that's a bloody good first step!

We played for 90 minutes at Plymouth, and at Morecambe, yes I'd like to see us do it more often but referring back to my earlier point, how many teams have you seen us play this season that have played well for 90 minutes? Maybe it's just a League 2 thing.

The Gaffney to Rovers bit is concerning, I'd have no worries if he was replacing Williamson but if they both go then obviously we're going to have to hope the replacement is up to a similar standard, but that will be a gamble. Ledson I think we can replace if necessary, he really hasn't set the world on fire for us. Demetriou hasn't played much recently, Kennedy hasn't played at all, and we've picked up 7 points in Gayle's absence since he got injured, I don't think the loan players problem is that much of an issue.

I don't mind people being cautious or even thinking that we won't make the playoffs (heck I'm not even saying I think we're going to), I consider myself a realist too, remember how negative I was earlier in the season, but to say people who think we might are idiots is extremely wide of the mark, because all the signs indicate that we should be bloody close. There is a long way to go but we are in a very good position, at some point we have to start believing, settling in mid-table with what we have at our disposal this year isn't acceptable.

 

[SVH]

This time last year Bury were mid table on 31 points. The rest is history.

 

[Laker]

We're capable of getting in there but there's more areas to improve on yet, and I'm sure all sane Cambridge fans believe that.

Goalkeeper is still an area to sort (I thought Beasant should have closed the angle down more than he did) and I'm not convinced by a number of players in our starting line up today - Ledson isn't pulling up any trees (granted he's young but we need more from him or we need someone else), Newton is hit and miss, Roberts is too slow and cumbersome, I'm not sure about Omozusi either.

But we do have a number of players in decent form - Corr, Berry, Dunk, Simpson and Williamson all look decent going forward (and Gaffney too if we keep him) plus Legge is generally solid. Sadly Taylor is now out for the season from what I've heard - he was in good form too.

So we're a mixed bag at the moment but if we have a good transfer window then we have enough quality about us already to put together a run into the play offs.

 

[Carver]

Go on Cambridge!

I know you've got good quality in your side so rather see you up there instead of dirty cheating Wycombe.

 

[Ban Fat Stan]

I've never left a game not believing we didn't get all 3 points instead get zilch. We played Cambridge off the pitch for majority of the game, bullied them, quicker,spread the ball and we should of been out of sight and had Akinde lobbed the keeper at 1 nil and it was half an inch earlier it would of been totally deserved. I guess the fact the abbey was silent is a compliment to how good we really were. Obviously when the 2 goals went in Cambridge fans encouraged the players as expected.

Decent turnout over 500 which is a 3rd of our home support from boxing day.

We will play much worse this season and get something from a game and I'm sure Cambridge will have a similar experience to us

 

[rudebwoyben]

Well firstly, that was marvellous, I mean a proper ''this is what you do it all for'' ten minutes or so.

Secondly, very impressed with Barnet. Not sure quite what I was expecting aside from Akinde and a bit of pace in behind, but they were genuinely the better side until they took the lead. A combination of Barnet sitting back, and a Derry giving us a bit more width, got us back into the game and one we hit one the other soon followed. Scenes.

Still would like to see us be a bit more pro-active rather than reactive tactically. and get Barry in the centre where he is most effective, but otherwise the endeavour and fight was there for all to see. Some entertaining times lay ahead. Whether fruitful, time will tell, but most certainly entertaining.

Finally, how our keeper got away with that penalty early on was beyond me. He got booked, but should have been a pen(from right behind it at the goal at least). Ref had a bit of a hard time in this one and was inconsistent throughout. And isn't Dunk marvellous when he's roaming the field? Get Demetriou in and let Dunk do his thang.

A Cambridge fan from behind the Newmarket End goal took a video of the match, which includes the penalty incident. It looked a penalty to me and Akinde's been given these before.

 

[AmberRich]

I partly agree with Vanni. In the first 70 minutes we didn't look like a team who should be in the playoffs. Which does worry me. But the team has spirit and fought its way back which is very pleasing. We have a few things to do in January. Like get a new keeper and extend the loans we have. If we can do this then we could get playoffs.
My immediate reaction to Akinde going down was that it was a penalty and it happened right in front of me. But the people around were all saying he dived

 

[BeeArmy]

I thought it was quite funny when the Cambridge fans behind the goal, were singing "Amber Army" and the fans to our right, were singing "yellows" at the same time. Make your mind up.

 

[BeeArmy]

I am in shock. We just cant win away. Completely undeserved.

 

[Urban]

Wheres the shock? We're shit.

 

[BeeArmy]

Wheres the shock? We're shit.

The fact we destroyed them for 70 minutes. Did you go yesterday?

 

[ambernuts]

I've never left a game not believing we didn't get all 3 points instead get zilch. We played Cambridge off the pitch for majority of the game, bullied them, quicker,spread the ball and we should of been out of sight and had Akinde lobbed the keeper at 1 nil and it was half an inch earlier it would of been totally deserved. I guess the fact the abbey was silent is a compliment to how good we really were. Obviously when the 2 goals went in Cambridge fans encouraged the players as expected.

Decent turnout over 500 which is a 3rd of our home support from boxing day.

We will play much worse this season and get something from a game and I'm sure Cambridge will have a similar experience to us

Trust me, we've already had that experience. It's the difference Derry has made, installing a never say die attitude.

'Destroyed' is a bit strong though, we were just way below par is all.

With regards to the Yellow/Amber thing, it's annoying but it has its roots. Two different armies, two different chants is how I'll defend that one.

 

[Urban]

The fact we destroyed them for 70 minutes. Did you go yesterday?

No, I had other arrangements unfortunately. I didn't need to go to know that we'd lose though, we're shit away and turgid at best at home.

We can destroy anyone but the fact remains we've now dropped points from a winning position yet again. Allen holds play up as soon as we take a lead and that's what is shit, why we're shit and why we'll continue to be shit until he's gone.

 

[Ban Fat Stan]

I just wanted to say that thankfully urbans views are not representative of Barnets fans. I think he is having a mid life crisis as he seems rather emotional. But please carry on as you are very funny