Cambridge v Wimbledon

[Arbury]

Right, here we go again and the pressure is definitely starting to mount on us to get a result, personally I'd be happy just to tighten up and come away with a 0-0.

As for the lineup, I haven't got a clue really other than Hughes not being at right back please, tait to take his place and resume his usual duty.

If I was in dickies shoes I'd go for;
Dunn
Tait
Miller
Coulson
Taylor
Ball
Hughes
Mendez-Laing
Donaldson
Simpson
Slew

That is providing Elliot isn't fit, but if he is replace him with slew. We need to push up defensively so there isn't this 50yard gap between defence and the forwards, think it will give the fullbacks other options other than just lumping it forwards and giving the strikers a scrap for the ball.

KTF

 

[womble76]

We are on very good for at the moment. I will go for a 1 - 2 away win. However i would be happy enough with a draw.

 

[Tom_CUFC]

As much as I'd like to see wholesale changes to the back 5, we just don't have the resources to do it without making ourselves even worse (think on the forum on Sunday I put Norris and Lanzoni in there but clearly I was still in a right mood over Saturday as that would be suicidal) , so the 5 you've put is probably what he's going to go with and it's hard to complain too much. Taylor and Coulson need a rest IMO, but we just don't have any ready made replacements. If he's going to shoehorn Hughes in though I wouldn't mind him at centre-back, think he's done well there before, but I think Akinfenwa would have a field day against him.

Assuming that back 5, I'd still rather go Kaikai and NML out wide with Ball and Morrissey in the middle, absolutely zero chance of that happening though. Again what you've put looks likely assuming no Chadwick.

Agree up front, think Slew has shown something but you've got to have Simpson up there and I'd much rather Elliott played given the chance.

Despite all that, 0-2 defeat. Said we needed to win one of these two home games but Saturday moved the goalposts completely, so agree that 0-0 would be very good.

 

[Arbury]

I think Hughes will eventually end being a centre back, I like him playing there but I don't think now is the time for him to start there, we just need to get that stability back so I personally wouldn't make a mass of changes.

I was tempted to put morrissey in but opted for ball and Hughes purely for that battling quality that I think we're lacking in that part of the pitch.

I feel sorry for slew at the minute as he hasn't had any decent service other than long balls for him to chase down which usually ends up in him tussling with the defender and generally losing out, definitely not a strong point of his, if we play Simpson/Donaldson off him then I think it will suit him a lot more but there's no doubt he has got to work harder(perhaps we've just been lucky to have had appiah who just never stopped chasing).


KTF

 

[Wombletom]

Despite the defeat at Shrewsbury who are the best team we've played this season, we are on a decent run of form at the moment. I can't see it not continuing.
Fairly comfortable away win.

 

[Laker]

Any result is possible tomorrow night, that's the joy of playing us. We don't even have a clue which 11 will get picked, we can probably guess 5 or 6 with a degree of certainty but no more which is indicative of why we're so inconsistent this season.

I'm going to go for a 3-3 draw. We'll go 1 down then score 3 in 10 minutes to go in at half time ahead. Then Wimbledon will have someone sent off before producing an ok second half performance while our defence goes AWOL again. The U's fans will of course blame our kepper despite the defence parting like the Red Sea to concede twice. Our kepper's confidence will thus be hit further.

Wimbledon will also miss a stoppage time penalty to win it as Akinfenwa's run up will result in a mini earthquake which ultimately puts him off and sends the ball over the away end.

Or something like that.

 

[iWomble]

Wimbledon will also miss a stoppage time penalty to win it as Akinfenwa's run up will result in a mini earthquake which ultimately puts him off and sends the ball over the away end.

Or something like that.

No, you could be right. Although the last time he took one he was so stunned by the earthquake that he tapped it gently to the keeper. Worst penalty ever.

My fear is that we won't get any of our 4 missing centre halves fit or back from suspension and have to keep the enthusiastic but frankly non-league Winfield as emergency fill-in alongside the rampaging man-beast that is Oshilaja. Otherwise I can see us winning this - if we don't then any foolhardy dreams of the playoffs can be forgotten.

 

[Laker]

Well after falling sick yesterday and being consigned to my bed, I'm stuck with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and Mark Johnson tonight. Listening on the radio is traumatic at the best of times but it's going to be very challenging after shipping 6 on Saturday.....

 

[Laker]

Fuck me, Akinfenwa just missed a penalty. We wouldn't have come back from that.

 

[Womble98]

FFS bayo, second time this season.

 

[Laker]

We've just missed a penalty too. Massive opportunity missed.

 

[Womble98]

Only one James Shea!

 

[Laker]

0-0. FT. Well it's better than Saturday. And Portsmouth's comeback is helpful too. But we didn't sound great again, lots of improvement needed.

 

[Brox]

Just needed one goal in this game to be up £30 for the night, lost £20 instead - two missed penalties?

 

[Meadow]

Bayo's was another poor attempt, apparently. I'd like to see Shea's save on the highlights.

 

[womble76]

If we were a bit more clinical we could and should gave won this game. Entertaining end to end 0. 0.

 

[Wombletom]

Disappointing not to have come away with all 3 points. But at least we didn't lose, was always gonna be a difficult game with Cambridge coming into the game on the back of a 6-2 home defeat.
Saturday morning I would've settled for 4 points from our 2 games, just got them opposite to what I thought we would.

Neal Ardley... If you're reading. Please. Please can we have a different penalty taking for our next penalty.

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Much improved from Saturday, but still plenty of work to be done, a good stop gap certainly though. Thought a draw was fair but we had the better chances with Hughes' in the first half that was goalbound and Kaikai inexplicably missing an open goal in the last 10 minutes.

Pompey did us a favour too, so feeling a lot better this morning.

 

[Arbury]

Yeah the draw definitely being a fair result, thought we had the better chances(how the hell did kaikai miss?)but Wimbledon definitely played the more attractive football.

For us, a step in the right direction, seriously lacking confidence still but I'd have settled for 0-0 before kick off.

Thought bayos pen was a good one but it looked like coulson got the ball in the tackle leading up to the pen, I'd have to see it again to be certain though, our pen looked the worse of the two with Simpson hitting it at a comfortable height for Shea.

One more thing, thought it was good to see two teams just having a right go at each other without all this falling over at the slightest touches and very little time wasting, was played in the right way is what I'm trying to say, anyway onto morecombe.

KTF

 

[Tom_CUFC]

It was fairly close to him but it looked like his arm was stretched pretty far out. Contrary to above I though Akinfenwa's penalty was weak and more of a "miss" while Simpson's was better and was a good save, but as mentioned you put it at that height and you're asking for trouble, even more so when you don't put your foot through it.

 

[devilofajob]

How did Matt Harrold do?

 

[Tom_CUFC]

How did Matt Harrold do?

Didn't impress me much, didn't win a lot in the air (both being beaten by the defender and just flat out missing the ball completely), no pace whatsoever, didn't really look like he was going to get in any goalscoring opportunities from what I remember, and looked absolutely exhausted right at the end, there was a ball that rolled all the away across about 2 yards in front of him and he remained absolutely static. Players have poor debuts but you can see what their strengths are, I don't really see what he's going to offer apart from another striker for us to launch it aimlessly at despite the fact he's not a target man.

Other people seemed to think he played well though, and he's only been with us for about 48 hours, needs to improve though IMO. Be interesting to see how good he is in the box if we got some crosses in towards him, seems like he'd be good at muscling defenders out of the way to get to the ball (Tom Elliott is very good at this for us and scores most of his goals that way but sadly we don't play that way often enough to utilise it, which is part of the reason why he hasn't scored for 4 months, and I suspect it'll be the same here with Harrold).

 

[Wombletom]

Makes a change for Matt Harrold not to score against us.

Been a thorn in our sides for a few years now.