You can read a ‘blow by blow’ account on the U’s official site or BBC, hence I always try to offer a true fans view from an entirely different perspective. Here, I pose a simple question; how many players at the start were John Ward signings?
No answers on a postcard please, but the answer is staggeringly few. In my humble opinion, this was the FIRST genuine Joe Dunne side, put together inside one transfer window.........and we won!
In his early managerial days, Joe brought in a couple of (Arsenal) new faces that enabled the old guard to improve for two or three matches. Then injuries prevailed and the wheels came off. Until this transfer window opened, Joe was firmly stuck in limbo.
Now a week before its closure, there was no Henderson, no Wordsworth, no Duguid, no Izzet, no Rose, no Cousins (etc.)...not even on the bench. Morrison, Sears and Bond did make the bench, but only Sears featured, whilst we had newcomers Samuel and Porter as back up artillery. Geez, did I feel excited as the referee whistled the commencement, One could hear the crowd muttering “Clifford who? Walker from where? Two Wrights (here, I mused; “but Two Wrights can’t make a wrong”). There followed a boring first half stand-off with nil-nil written all over it as two tentative teams, probed an poked each other without a single venomous strike.
Walker in goal had only four shots on target to defend. But I thought he looked like pole vaulter Sergie Bubka, Maybe he could actually leap over his cross bar, given the ease that he plucked balls out of the air and commanded his area. But where was Mark Cousins (Shaun Phillips on the bench)?
Wright (oh joy, a proper defender!), White, Thomson (Eastman), Magnus and Wilson suggested no nonsense in defence and the resultant clean sheet didn’t surprise me. But unlike previous weeks, we DID attempt to play the ball on the deck, whilst Walker didn’t once miskick out of goal.
Up front, we still looked lacklustre at times. Frankly, for most of the game it was a pretty poor spectacle. But once the goal came (a scrappy affair), and the South Stand roared at its vocal best, one could see renewed confidence flow over the side. With the injection of Sears, and the Walsall defence opening up as the visitors attempted to get back in to the game, it burst into life, Sears hit the cross bar and the U's started to pepper McLoughlin until ultimately we got the second goal we deserved, and the three points necessary to put us outside the relegation zone on slender goal difference.
With Hartlepool seemingly already doomed, Portsmouth yet to lose ten points, Bury and Scunthorpe struggling, and Oldham in free-fall; suddenly the whole world looks rosier today. Later, as icing on the cake, we enjoyed a visit to the Colchester Beer Festival. The excellent local band (Navacross) played “I see a bad moon rising” – we (badly) sang “Don’t go out tonight, unless you’re blue and white – there’s a GOOD moon on its way”.