Cambridge United FC

[ericgi]

saw the away problems with the stockport stewards. What a waste of humanity that lot are. Better things to do than to worry about standing in the away end, no?

[Tom_CUFC]

3 games to go now and we still have an outside shot of the playoffs (mainly due to everyone else being shit and us managing to be average recently). We've continued to be decimated by injuries, with our right-back now out for the season as well as one of our 2 strikers. Of our first choice starting XI we currently have 6 of them out injured and 2 of them carrying knocks, we only named 4 subs on Saturday and will probably name even less tonight, which makes our rise towards the playoffs even more remarkable.

Gateshead home - Lost 1-0
Newport home - Drew 1-1 (late penalty conceded)


Alfreton away - Lost 2-1
Wrexham home - Drew 1-1 (94th minute equaliser conceded)
Lincoln away - Won 1-0
Hayes away - Drew 0-0


Kettering home - Won 2-0
Barrow away - Won 3-1

So despite that fairly average set of results we've actually moved closer to the playoffs. With 3 games left we are 7 points adrift, BUT play York at home tonight who currently occupy the last playoff place, so we could be just 4 points adrift in a few hours time. After that we play the champions Fleetwood at home, then go to Tamworth on the last day of the season. Still a long shot, but based on the form of all the others, it's certainly not impossible. Match commentary for tonight will be here if you are free to listen - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17661616

1 Fleetwood 44 58 103 (Promoted)
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2 Wrexham 43 49 92 (Confirmed in playoffs)
3 Mansfield 44 34 83 (Confirmed in playoffs)
4 Kidderminster 44 23 76
5 York 43 33 74
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6 Southport 44 2 72
7 Luton 42 30 71
8 Gateshead 43 6 70
9 Grimsby 44 20 69
10 Forest Green 44 20 67
11 Cambridge 43 15 67
12 Braintree 44 1 62
13 Barrow 44 -16 56
14 Ebbsfleet 43 -11 53
15 Alfreton 44 -24 51
16 Tamworth 43 -20 47
17 Lincoln City 44 -10 46
18 Stockport 44 -19 45
19 Newport 42 -10 43
20 Telford 43 -18 42
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21 Hayes 44 -32 38
22 Darlington 43 -26 32 (Relegated)
23 Kettering 44 -58 29 (Relegated)
24 Bath City 44 -47 28 (Relegated)

Also our manager paid for all our admission at Barrow on Saturday, as well as the cost of the supporters coach, and bought everyone on the coach pizza in a nice gesture (See here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17742500), and next week we play a West Ham U23 side to kick off our centenary celebrations, which will see the first designs of our new ground unveiled, which we're looking to move into in 5 years time.

[Tom_CUFC]

The playoff dream didn't materialise, our depleted squad lost 1-0 at home to York, before overcoming champions Fleetwood 2-0 at home, and then drawing 2-2 at Tamworth in the last game of the season, securing a 9th place finish. A pretty successful season overall considering where we were this time last year. We're debt free, set to make a profit for the first time in decades, we've got a young squad, a manager who genuinely gives a shit about our club, and a new stadium on the horizon, a very positive time for CUFC, and we should be able to do even better next season.

Fleetwood home:



Bit of pyro from Tamworth away:



1 Fleetwood 46 54 103
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2 Wrexham 46 52 98
3 Mansfield 46 39 89
4 York 46 36 83
5 Luton 46 36 81
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6 Kidderminster 46 19 76
7 Southport 46 3 76
8 Gateshead 46 7 74
9 Cambridge 46 16 71
10 Forest Green 46 21 70
11 Grimsby 46 19 70
12 Braintree 46 -4 62
13 Barrow 46 -14 60
14 Ebbsfleet 46 -15 54
15 Alfreton 46 -24 54
16 Stockport 46 -16 51
17 Lincoln City 46 -10 49
18 Tamworth 46 -23 48
19 Newport 46 -12 47
20 Telford 46 -20 46
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21 Hayes 46 -32 41
22 Darlington 46 -26 36
23 Bath City 46 -46 31
24 Kettering 46 -60 30

In the first leg of the playoffs York and Mansfield drew 1-1, and Luton beat Wrexham 2-0, with the 2nd legs on Monday and the final in 2 weeks. We'll be joined next year by Hereford and Macclesfield from League Two, Woking and Hyde from the Conference South and North respectively, as well as a playoff winner from both of those leagues as well.

[Tom_CUFC]

U's fixtures for 2012-13

Aug 11 Forest Green Rovers (a)
Aug 14 Lincoln City (h)
Aug 18 Southport (h)
Aug 25 Nuneaton Tn (a)
Aug 27 Dartford (h)
Sep 1 Stockport County (a)
Sep 4 Luton Town (a)
Sep 8 Wrexham (h)
Sep 15 AFC Telford (h)
Sep 22 Hereford United (a)
Sep 25 Kidderminster Harriers (h)
Sep 29 Barrow (a)
Oct 6 Mansfield Town (h)
Oct 9 Woking (a)
Oct 13 Gateshead (a)
Oct 27 Hyde (h)
Nov 6 Newport County (a)
Nov 10 Macclesfield Town (h)
Nov 17 Tamworth (h)
Dec 1 Alfreton Town (a)
Dec 4 Ebbsfleet United (a)
Dec 8 Gateshead (h)
Dec 22 Nuneaton Town (h)
Dec 26 Braintree Town (a)
Dec 29 Dartford (a)
Jan 1 Braintree Town (h)
Jan 5 Stockport County (h)
Jan 12 Southport (a)
Jan 19 Hyde (a)
Jan 22 Ebbsfleet United (h)
Jan 26 Grimsby Town (h)
Feb 2 Afc Telford United (a)
Feb 9 Kidderminster Harriers (a)
Feb 12 Alfreton Town (h)
Feb 16 Mansfield Town (a)
Feb 23 Hereford United (h)
Feb 26 Tamworth (a)
Mar 2 Forest Green Rovers (h)
Mar 9 Woking (h)
Mar 16 Grimsby Town (a)
Mar 23 Wrexham (a)
Mar 30 Luton Town (h)
Apr 1 Lincoln City (a)
Apr 6 Newport County (h)
Apr 13 Barrow (h)
Apr 20 Macclesfield Town (a)

[ericgi]

not exactly the sexiest of away trips to start things off. Luton away early on should be fun though!

Should be able to get off to a good start, I'd think.

[Tom_CUFC]

The first game of the season is always a good laugh, so I'd rather get one that is normally shit than something like Luton which is always awesome no matter when it is. Glad that is on a Tuesday night again, was absolutely insane last season .

If we can get out of Forest Green without losing (they've been somewhat bankrolled this summer, although not quite to the extent that Crawley and Fleetwood have the last 2 years) then we'll be in a great position as the rest of our August looks very good, I'm hoping for at least 12 points from our first 5.

Luton are the favourites, they've cleared out the deadwood and made some big name signings, including Scott Rendell who was our striker for our two playoff campaigns, and is still the best player I've seen play for us since we were relegated. Mansfield are being bankrolled too but their chairman is a bit of a nutjob so it could go tits up at any point. I expect Grimsby to do well too, but after that there's a number of teams that could claim they have a shot of making the playoffs and we're most definitely one of them. I expect us to be in and around the playoffs this season for sure.

[bulldog]

good luck with the new season m8

[Tom_CUFC]

Season starts tomorrow, general feeling is that we've got a very good shot at the playoffs. Luton, Grimsby and Mansfield are expected to be the top 3, and then there's probably 6 or 7 teams who have a chance of one of the last 2 playoff spots, and we're definitely one of them. We've got a pretty good squad built, plenty of depth, no-one older than 25 too which is encouraging. Tough first game at Forest Green (a place we've never won at in our 7 years down here), but the rest of August after that looks very good on paper, so a chance for a good start.

Some pre-season highlights:

Cambridge City 1-3 CUFC


CUFC 0-2 Ipswich


Welling 0-3 CUFC (goals at 2.20, 10.40 and 12.30)


Bury Town 1-3 CUFC

[Tom_CUFC]

An indifferent start to the season, 7 points from the first 3 was exactly what the doctor ordered, and could've been 9 if it wasn't for a last minute penalty in the opening game. We then had 2 absolute bankers in our next 2 games, but could only get a point from the first one with a 94th minute equaliser, and then proceeded to lose the next one at home. Saturday saw us go to Stockport and get a good point, but in very fortunate circumstances. We sit 13th after the first month, only the home defeat to Dartford has been the real killer and it's still very tight obviously, but we've not been playing well and with a tough September on paper, not taking advantage may prove costly.

Forest Green 1-1 CUFC
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6j11hPJHO8&feature=related[/youtube]

CUFC 2-1 Lincoln City

CUFC 2-0 Southport
http://vimeo.com/47965500?action=share& ... 481607#_=_

Nuneaton 2-2 CUFC
Missed penalty


CUFC 1-2 Dartford


Stockport 1-1 CUFC
Stockport penalty


Tomorrow night we play our biggest game of the season away to Luton, which hopefully will really kickstart our season (I'm not hopeful), the rest of September looks like this:

Tue 4th - Away vs Luton (3rd)
Sat 8th - Home vs Wrexham (7th)
Sat 15th - Home vs Telford (6th) (Televised, 5.15pm UK time)
Sat 22nd - Away vs Hereford (9th)
Tue 25th - Home vs Kidderminster (24th)
Sat 29th - Away vs Barrow (22nd)

[Tom_CUFC]

Crazy last month for the U's, saw us leak a lot of goals for most of September, then winning our last 2 games 4-1, with our manager resigning in between.

From last month - Nuneaton away drawn 2-2


Away vs Luton - Lost 3-2
Home vs Wrexham - Lost 4-1
Home vs Telford - Drew 3-3 (Equalised 11 minutes into injury time)
Away vs Hereford - Lost 4-2
Home vs Kidderminster - Lost 3-1
Away vs Barrow - Won 4-1
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_j6CJYQN8w&feature=plcp[/youtube]

Home vs Mansfield - Won 4-1
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pkS1VN5F3Q&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]

After the defeat to Barrow Jez George stepped down as manager to resume his role as director of football, director of youth development and leading the project on the new stadium, which he had always intended to do eventually (he never wanted the job in the first place), and we appointed Richard Money as our new head coach, former Luton manager who took them to the playoffs once before getting sacked whilst in 3rd place the year after, and he started well enough on Saturday!

October is an important month, everyone is beating everyone so despite our dreadful run before Barrow we are still only 9 points off the playoffs with 70% of the season still to go. On Saturday we are being televised in the UK, kickoff 9.15am Seattle time, so if you want to watch something when you wake up, the U's are available on dodgy streaming sites. We also drew Luton at home in the FA Cup later in the month which will be, tasty.

Tuesday 9th Oct - Away vs Woking
Saturday 13th Oct - Away vs Gateshead (9.15am kick off, televised)
Saturday 20th Oct - Home vs Luton Town (FA Cup 4th qualifying round)
Saturday 27th Oct - Home vs Hyde

1 Newport 13 13 29
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2 Forest Green 13 12 27
3 Wrexham 13 12 26
4 Luton 13 6 26
5 Dartford 13 10 25
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6 Grimsby 13 9 21
7 Tamworth 13 1 19
8 Macclesfield 12 0 19
9 Telford 13 3 18
10 Stockport 13 1 17
11 Gateshead 13 0 17
12 Hereford 13 -4 17
13 Mansfield 12 -4 17
14 Cambridge 13 0 16
15 Woking 13 -2 16
16 Alfreton 12 -4 16
17 Southport 13 -5 16
18 Braintree 13 -5 13
19 Barrow 13 -10 13
20 Kidderminster 13 -1 12
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21 Lincoln City 13 -6 12
22 Nuneaton 13 -9 11
23 Ebbsfleet 13 -10 10
24 Hyde 12 -7 7

[eastside]

Hell of a game today. Looked like the stands were rocking.