It was an absolute travesty we lost at Crawley. They were one of the worst sides I've seen this season.
I think it will be a straight forward win for Cambridge and unfortunately there is a very good possibility of a goal or two for Gaffney given how poor Crawley's defence is.
I'm giving this one a miss to get in some belated New Year's celebrations/traditions.
It's always been my least favourite fixture, since the early Conference days. Although some of the fans have my sympathy for what they've been put through by past owners and managers/assistants, it's a horrible little club in a horrible ground at the end of horrible trip round the motorways.
That aside, I hope it's a satisfactory winning warm up for the private tussle at the Kenny next up and the travelling army get a bit of sunshine and entertainment as well as a result.
Records are meant to be broken, but our record of 2 draws and 5 defeats at Crawley isn't exactly inspiring. We haven't scored in the last 3 games as well. and let's not forget their rather easy 3-0 win at ours back in August, although things have changed a lot since that day. Like getting rid of Money for example, and whilst I have some doubts on Derry, sacking Money was still the best thing that could have happened to us as the footy was getting predictably boring. As were his post-match interviews.
9-0 Cambridge, Gaffney to score all 9, and to celebrate by pulling out a Bristol Rovers shirt and pissing on it.
Or a Crawley win as usually happens when we play them. Terrible away trip, no coincidence that my drinking sabbatical includes this game, get in, get out, go home.
I'm giving this one a miss too, and Luton actually. I can only afford to do one away a month (both financially and timewise) and I'm afraid Orient is way more appealing than the other two.
We got royally taken to the cleaners and our record against Crawley is generally shite. So we owe them one.
I would start Corr and Gaffney with Simpson on the bench, play both new full backs and keep the rest the same. We should be good enough to get something there with that side.
I'm a bit perturbed by the lack of keeper signing yet. I thought Derry might have lined one up during December for early January. So we're stuck with Calamity Sam. :-(
That was fucking abysmal, a cry back to the last 9 months of Money. This is league is so piss fucking poor, and it's so fucking annoying that we're not able to take advantage of it.
2nd to every ball, scared to hold onto it when we did have it, half hearted efforts to get the ball, just a complete lack of energy and creativity, we could still be playing now and we wouldn't have scored. Absolutely no ideas whatsoever.
Glad we've got Norris back, he is better than the other two, he still really lacks a presence though and hasn't bulked up at all. A few ropey kicks (one where he was bailed out well by Furlong) but I'm willing to cut him some slack with the atrocious weather.
Roberts is so, so bad, Coulson has to start next week. Paige is so lightweight, I don't think he's ready for the step into this style of football from what he's used to at a Premier League club. Furlong put in one outstanding tackle as mentioned above to prevent a goal, but I didn't think he was great apart from that, his crossing in the second half especially was terrible. Legge is probably the only one to come out with some sort of credit today, he was at least a bit above average for the entirety of the game.
If we're going to play with 4 across midfield, we HAVE to get a right winger, Berry is wasted out there (I feel like I've been writing that for weeks), and Ledson has been shite most of the time he's been here, with Newton fading the last couple of weeks, so one of them needs dropping. Dunk huffed and puffed today as usual but it just didn't come off for him, he's certainly earned himself a poor game though.
I thought Gaffney looked lethargic, he didn't really commit to challenges, his really good chance in the first half was really poorly taken and he messed up the other half chance he had shortly after. His turn and shot in the second half was good though and did show a glimpse of that ability he has to pull something out of nothing, hopefully we can find a way to utilise him better but he'll need to up his effort level too. The service to Corr was poor today and you could see he was frustrated, he's not the sort of player, like Gaffney, who can drop a bit deeper and do something ridiculous, or get out wide and generate assists, he needs good service to be successful, and it was nowhere near good enough today for him to be effective.
Whilst the team is certainly not a top 5 team in this division (the sort of form we would need to make the playoffs), not even close, they played far, far below their level today, and that's been the case for too much of the time we've played since Plymouth away. Derry has seen enough of the team now that he needs to start rectifying these issues, not just by signing loan players but tactically. Sadly for us, Luton away is not the sort of game where I expect that to be particularly easy.
The worst we've played for a long time, fucking hate Crawley.
Couldn't cross for toffee, one outstanding tackle in the first half, largely uninvolved apart from that, looked a bit lightweight (but far less so than the bloke we have on the other side from West Ham). I'd give him a 5.