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Nice one wessex. Should be a good number of U's fans there this evening. Let's hope they can cheer us to victory. Feel like we need at least five points from the next three matches and getting three tonight would be a great start.
COVENTRY CITY v IPSWICH TOWN 2-1 LEICESTER CITY v DERBY COUNTY 2-1 MIDDLESBROUGH v HULL CITY 2-1 MILLWALL v BRISTOL CITY 2-1 WREXHAM v PRESTON NORTH END 2-1 CARDIFF CITY v STEVENAGE 2-1 BRISTOL ROVERS v BARNET 2-1 CHELTENHAM TOWN v SWINDON TOWN 1-2 CHESTERFIELD v CAMBRIDGE UNITED 2-1 MILTON KEYNES DONS v NOTTS COUNTY 2-1
Keeping with the Afcon theme Junior was originally credited with the Cameroon equaliser against the Ivory Coast but it's since been changed to an own goal.
Boxing Day in proper football leagues means football matches and the U’s face one of their shortest trips of the season as they venture across the Thames to face creepy Crawley. Crawley’s “stadium” is one of the few grounds I’ve gone away with the U’s (the 3-1 League Cup win back in 2019) and it felt like a ground that should be in the National League South but Crawley have been established in the football league since 2011 with two promotions to League One during that time which is impressive given the relative size of the club. We don’t have a huge history against Crawley Town, with just 24 meetings to date of which Crawley have won 11. In fact since that memorable League Cup win we hadn’t managed to beat Crawley until the, not as memorable but probably more important, 3-2 away win towards the end of the 2023/24 season that went a long way to helping us stay in this division.
Unless we have any new injury or illness worries I can’t see Danny making any changes to the starting XI that dismantled Newport County so comfortably on Saturday so I’m expecting the U’s to line up as follows:
Macey
Vincent Young Tucker Araujo Iandolo
Bishop Read
Lisbie Anderson
Mbick
Tovide
Subs
Smith Hunt Goodwin Payne Edwards Terry Williams (Gordon if not fit)
Payne and Edwards did their case for a starting spot no harm with their performances on Saturday and Akande must be close to making the matchday 18 too.
Crawley somehow made it into League One the season before last but their stay was short-lived and they haven’t hit the ground running on their return to League Two with Scott Lindsay back at the helm after a disappointing spell at MK. They currently sit a point above the bottom two and haven’t won since they beat Fleetwood on November 8th. They have had a tough run of games though with trips to Swindon, Bromley and somewhat unbelievably also led 3-2 at Salford before conceding two late goals to lose 4-3. They were also by far the better team against Swindon but didn’t take their chances and lost to a second half penalty, the kind of stuff that happens when you’re at the wrong end of the table.
Not sure there’s anyone in the current Crawley squad that has ever featured for the U’s and I can’t think of too many players that have played for both clubs. Luke Gambin is the only one that comes to mind. A player we signed from Luton in 2019 who had spent the previous season on loan at Crawley with his only goal for the U's being the third goal in the 3-1 victory against Crawley. I’m sure there must be others though.
The weather at the Broadfield Stadium is set to be dry and sunny with a moderate breeze and a high of just six degrees after overnight frosts. Wrap up warm U’s fans, it’s going to be a chilly one! I feel this may prove to be a trickier challenge than their league position suggests but these are the games we need to be winning if we want to climb up the table so I’m going for a hard fought 2-1 victory with goals from Mbick and Read.
It's fine for me on my laptop but when I'm on my phone I have popup come up every time I try to navigate anywhere on the site. It's pretty annoying as it seems to return no matter what I do.
Nice one wessex. I saw earlier that Kuffour Jr is out injured until the new year and that Ronnie Harvey has been recalled from Chelmsford so maybe we've got a few more injury concerns. Hoping Payne is ready for some minutes tomorrow.
CHARLTON ATHLETIC v OXFORD UNITED 2-1 DERBY COUNTY v PORTSMOUTH 2-1 PORT VALE v PETERBOROUGH 1-2 ROTHERHAM UNITED v HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 1-1 WYCOMBE WANDERERS v BOLTON WANDERERS 1-1 SHREWSBURY TOWN v CHESTERFIELD 2-2
I'd be pretty happy to stick with what we've got providing no one leaves.
JK is a bit of an enigma. I want him to do well but it hasn't really happened for him, not consistently anyway. For me Williams has struggled a bit and I'm not sure about Gape. I think Edwards has shown flashes of last season's form recently and could be a real asset the second half of the season.
Three former U's got their hands on a trophy yesterday with Shamal George, Mikael Mandron and Jayden Richardson all being part of the St Mirren team that won the Scottish League Cup.
Apologies to both BFG and mfb_cufc, totally missed this last week. It seems my predictions would've been soundly beaten anyway so not too disappointed. Best of luck in the next round BFG.
2nd Round Replay
CHELSEA v EVERTON 2-1 BIRMINGHAM CITY v CHARLTON ATHLETIC 2-1 MIDDLESBROUGH v QUEENS PARK RANGERS 2-1 MILLWALL v HULL CITY 2-1 BLACKPOOL v LINCOLN CITY 1-2 BURTON ALBION v WYCOMBE WANDERERS 1-2 PLYMOUTH ARGYLE v ROTHERHAM UNITED 1-1 CHELTENHAM TOWN v HARROGATE TOWN 2-1 GILLINGHAM v BARROW 2-1 NEWPORT COUNTY v FLEETWOOD TOWN 1-2
LIVERPOOL v BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 2-1 BURNLEY v FULHAM 1-2 NORWICH CITY v SOUTHAMPTON 1-2 LEICESTER CITY v IPSWICH TOWN 1-1 BARNSLEY v LEYTON ORIENT 2-1 CARDIFF CITY v DONCASTER ROVERS 2-1 STOCKPORT COUNTY v STEVENAGE 1-1 SALFORD CITY v COLCHESTER UNITED 1-1 ACCRINGTON STANLEY v BROMLEY 1-2 TRANMERE ROVERS v CREWE ALEXANDRA 1-1
It's two 12:30 kick offs in as many Saturdays for the U’s as they make the trip up to Salford on the back of a battling goalless draw against Gillingham and an unfortunate midweek defeat by West Ham U21’s in the Vertu Trophy. Danny Cowley was announced as the League Two Manager of the Month this morning and I’m hoping the dreaded Manager of the Month curse doesn’t raise it’s ugly head tomorrow. Although I think I remember someone completely disproving the theory that there is any kind of curse.
With no one from Tuesday night really pushing their case for starting spot I’m expecting the U’s to line up as follows:
Macey
Vincent Young Tucker Araujo Iandolo
Bishop Read
Lisbie Anderson
Mbick
Tovide
Subs
Smith Hunt Goodwin Gape Edwards Williams Kuffour Jr. (Terry if Araujo injured)
This means there’s no place in the squad for Oni, Gordon or Powell. With Payne, Baldwin, Perry, Akande and Flanagan all still unavailable due to injury.
Araujo looked in a fair bit of discomfort towards the end of the Gillingham game, I was surprised he managed to carry on at the time, but he did seem to be moving better by full time. I did think it may be cramp but the fact that he didn’t figure against West Ham U21’s, possibly cup-tied, and that we’ve recalled Terry from Braintree makes me worried that it’s a more serious issue. If Araujo is unavailable the obvious replacement, with Flanagan and Baldwin both being out, is Kuffour Jr., who has looked decent in the Vertu Trophy games. Another option would be to bring Hunt into the back four but that might lead to other positional changes.
Despite sitting three places and two points above us in the table Salford’s recent league form has been patchy to say the least with two wins, two defeats and two draws in their last six matches. They’ve also had two high scoring cup games recently, a 4-0 victory over Leyton Orient last Friday and a 7-2 defeat by Rotherham a few days previous, both at home. Our record against Salford is a positive one with six wins and three draws from 12 previous meetings however they were the only team in League Two last season that we didn’t take at least a point off. There are a few former U’s in the Salford squad with Ossama Ashley, Luke Garbutt and Dan Chesters all currently in their squad although I’m only expecting Garbutt, who is their captain, to figure tomorrow. On the subject of Garbutt I remember when he first signed on loan for us thinking how good he looked and that he was playing at a level far beneath his ability. It seems that injuries prevented him having the career many expected him to have (he was capped by England at U16 to U21 level) and he only made five appearances for Everton in between loan spells at Cheltenham, us, Fulham, Wigan, Oxford and Ipswich before joining Blackpool, where he spent three seasons, and he’s now in his third season at Salford.
Tomorrow will be the Danny and Nicky’s 100th game in charge of the U’s. No mean feat in the world of modern football and although it’s not always been smooth sailing I, for one, am so glad we’ve stuck with them. They really have transformed the club both on and off the pitch, which was never going to be easy given we were in a pretty dark place back in January 2024. I feel like we now have a team and a club that we believe in and can get behind and that’s all you really want as a supporter. Since Williams left in 2008 we’ve had 14 permanent managers and only three of them (Ward, McGreal and Cowley) managed the 100 game milestone. I expect Cowley to surpass Ward but he’ll have to go some to overtake McGreal who took charge for over 200 games!
The weather at the Peninsula Stadium tomorrow is, surprisingly, set to be dry and sunny with light winds and a high of 10 degrees. Pretty decent footballing conditions, especially for December. As it’s Danny's 100th game in charge I feel a 1-1 draw would be somewhat fitting and I’m backing Mbick to get our goal.
Thoroughly deserved. I thought he was unlucky not to get it in October and fully expected November's award to go to Woodman at Bromley but coach problems, the wheeled variety, seemed to tip it in Danny's favour.
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