Match Reports
Abbey United 2 Oxford United 0 – Saturday 22 November 2008
You could be forgiven for thinking I had made this, and the previous results up, especially if you aware of our history. I am yet to check the official Moosenet/Abbey United records, but I think this is the first time we have kept successive clean sheets!
It was a very, very, VERY cold morning as we arrived at Coldhams Common. Colder than Siberia according to a Daily Mail headline I read earlier in the day. Only a matter of time before they come over here, stealing our snow then. We only had 11 players (not having subs in these games makes it very hard!) and the midfielder's that had worked so well last weekend had to be completely changed, as Frankie and Andy were both unavailable. George came in as goalkeeper, meaning that Mark and Mark could reform their normally unsuccessful centre back partnership. Hero of the first hour last week, Lance, returned to play again at left back, seemingly with no intention to leave early to go to watch a United away game!! “Shagger” (real name James) came in for his debut.
GK: George Blackwell, RB: Richard White, LB: Lance Sharman, CB: Mark Case, CB: Mark Bentley, CM: Richard French, CM: James Munroe, LM: James Barringer, RM: Andy Lang, FW: Harry Weller, FW: Jamie Bates
Sub: FW: Jack Rogers
There was a biting wind as well as the freezing cold to deal with in the first half. Maybe we were in Siberia after all. Good football is hard enough on a normal day, but in these conditions it was near enough impossible. Every Oxford goal kick went out for a throw and every ball forward from us was too hard. The Oxford keeper made a great save form a long range shot from Jamie. We played well, considering, and had a few other half chances. The most notable action of the first half was James going down with an injury after a tackle, he hobbled off, and it was looking like we would have to play with 10, until a few minutes later Jack who had turned up late quickly got changed and we were back to eleven!
Half time 0-0.
There was no real changes to make at half time, apart from Jack going up front, and Richard moving to left wing to allow Jamie to come into the centre of midfield.
This move seemed to work eventually, but a tight start to the second half followed, as once again, each side struggled to cope with the wind and cold!
Abbey United defended well, and got their chance after an hour, Jamie Bates holding on to the ball well and made himself space to hit a low shot into the bottom corner form 20 yards. United were coping with playing against the wind a lot better than Oxford did. It was 2-0 with 15 minutes to go. A contender for goal of the season as the goalkeeper George rolled the ball out, and Whitey played it forward. The ball went in from “Shagger” on the wing leaving Harry Weller with a virtually open goal. Arsenal would have been proud. Well, maybe not proud exactly, but certainly envious. Oxford pressed a bit more after this, but we held on for another clean sheet.
Final score 2-0
We continue our move up the table next week, at home to Ebbsfleet, a side we beat last year, and hopefully the same set of lads that have played so well in the last couple of weeks will be there again. Abbey United, (currently) miles better than Cambridge United.
Mark Case
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Abbey United 3 Kettering Town Supporters Club 0 - Saturday 15 November 2008
This game was arranged as Kettering were playing away at Histon. It was their third ever game together, but as they had won their last two, Abbey United’s players were rightly fearful. They looked very professional as the they arrived, all shirts and bibs and proper warm up routines, very unlike the rabble in yellow!!
With some of our younger and newer players keen to make it to Crawley, it was a more experienced Abbey line up that took the field, with a couple of debutants and players drafted in due to the U’s playing somewhere else. Manager Mark Case “volunteered” to go in goal for the first period of the game. Lance made his debut at left back, and became the 30th different player to play for Abbey Unied this season. Joe Cooke who played once last season returned to play up front and Andy Moore came into midfield to make his debut. Mark, Andy and Joe all played together for a less than successful Sunday league team a few years ago, meaning that there was some people in the team who knew each other.
Thoughts amongst the management team were leaning towards starting with a 3-5-2 system, thankfully, some of the key players to this didn’t show up and so we went with an orthodox 4-4-2 with the central midfielder's instructed to sit close to the back 4.
The starting line up was….
GK: Mark Case, RB: Andrew Lang, LB: Lance Sharman, CB: Mark Bentley, CB: Ben Yelton, CM: Andy Moore, CM: Frankie Fry, RM: Mike Osbourn, LM: James Barringer, FW: Harry Weller and FW: Joe Cooke.
Subs: LB: Richard French and RB: Richard White.
The match started brightly, with both teams playing some nice football. Abbey United did well to protect their goalkeeper, who had little to do early on in the game. The midfield pair of Frankie and Andy was working well, showing Mr Capello that it is possible to play midfielder's who play the same game together!
Abbey United took the lead after 15 minutes. James found himself in an unnatural amount of space and put the ball towards the back post for Mike Osbourn to steer home. By this point, we had already had more shots on goal than we did in the entire of the previous game away at Northampton (i.e. more than none). It was 2-0 not long after, Frankie Fry gathered the ball in midfield before firing a shot into the top corner of the goal from….according to him…47 yards. In the pub later the management decided it was more like 25, either way, it was a goal that deserved to be seen by more than the 5 or 6 substitutes in attendance. After this, Kettering started to play a bit. They realised that maybe if they had some shots, they might score goals. Mark tipped a shot onto the post (not that anyone saw the touch that kept it out) and then a chance flew past the post. Following a Kettering corner, Abbey United showed that they are as good at counter attacking as Arsenal. The ball fell loose 25 yards from goal, Andy Lang tackled like never before and the ball broke to Mike Osbourn who took it on and blasted it past the keeper. The previous management regime for Abbey United wondered what had happened. Their current regime wondered too.
Half time 3-0
The second half saw some changes, most notably, scorer of 2 goals Mike going in goal as he had 90 minutes to play that afternoon. Mark went to centre back with Ben going onto the bench.
Kettering really came at us in the second half, playing 4 upfront and pushing us back. We struggled to get hold of the ball and had to spend large parts of the half “under the cosh” as the cliché goes. Mike made a couple of good saves to prevent Kettering getting a foothold in the game, Joe and James had chances to wrap it up but the keeper made fantastic one on one save form Joe and James missed with a volley. Kettering’s keeper also made a save that any keeper would have been proud of, shifting the direction of his dive following a deflected shot. Kettering continued to press for a goal, but couldn’t get through the strong Abbey United defence. With 10 minutes to go, James came off injured and Mark went upfront. There won’t be many players that play centre back, centre forward and goalkeeper in a game. (Ed. 10 minutes upfront nearly killed me, and I am never, ever doing it again.)
Final score 3-0
A superb performance form a team who have been slowly getting to know each other over the last few weeks. If we played Mansfield or Northampton now, we may well get a result. If we played Millwall again, we would still get stuffed. A first win and clean sheet of the season was made more impressive as we didn’t have a real goalkeeper. Mentions this week must go to everyone. Everyone played well, battled well, kept a good defensive line and tracked back. Here’s to hoping we can continue this good form against Oxford next weekend.
Mark Case
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Northampton Town Supporters Club 3 Abbey United 0 - Saturday 18 October 2008
Another free Saturday led to Abbey United taking the short trip over to Northampton for our first ever visit to their supporters side, who we have hosted regularly in our annual summer tournaments in recent years.
The Abbey United management team took a leaf out of Fabio Capello’s book this weekend, as we were willing to change tactics at half time as the system we started with was proving ineffective. Sadly, the changes were too, so we changed again. And again. Partly to get the performance going a bit, and partly to give everyone who travelled a decent amount of time on the pitch. The matches we play are always roll on, roll off subs, so sometimes there can be a bit of confusion.
We started with a traditional 4-4-2 system. Jamie Nightingale playing in goal. Veteran Anton returned to the squad after some time away from the scene (I suspect this is due to the authoritative manner of the previous management regime). Harry came in up front for his debut and Cristophe made a debut on the right wing. Neal came in for his first game of the season to partner Harry upfront. At last, 2 people who call themselves strikers. And a proper goalkeeper. What could possibly go wrong…..
The squad was as follows:
GK: Jamie Nightingale, RB: Andy Lang, LB: Richard French, CB: Mark Bentley, CB: Mark Case, CM: James Barringer, CM: Frankie Fry, LW: James Denton, RW: Cristophe Demoulin, FW: Harry Weller, FW: Neal Sucking. Subs: Anton Thacker, Pete Parnwell, George Blackwell.
Being 2-0 after 25 minutes, that’s what can go wrong. A ball over the top caused our less than pacy back four all sorts of problems for both goals as the strikers were left with relatively easy finishes. We hadn’t played that badly really. We had showed signs of picking up after the new team came together at Mansfield and the thrashing we got against Millwall (aka East London Youth Teams XI). We knocked the ball around nicely at times, and were talking much more. The main difference in fact was that Northampton had been playing together for a while, and it was the sort of performance we will be capable of if we can keep this set of lads together. We went in at half time 2-0 down, but content as we had the wind to play with in the second half.
We made some formation changes in the second half, and went to a 3-5-2 system. Mark C, George and Pete making up the back 3 with Andy and James Denton playing on the left wing. Richard, Frankie and Mark B played in midfield with Neal and Harry remaining up front.
The changes made us more solid and we were not getting beaten so easily through the middle, however, we still lacked up anything major up front. Just as the management team were discussing the possibility of going to 3-4-3, Northampton went three nil up after around an hour. I would love to describe the goal to you, but I wasn’t watching as I was looking round wondering how to change it around again. Anyway, we made the changes. They didn’t really work and nothing much else happened. We managed a shot on goal that went high and wide, although it was a difficult chance. Annoyingly, we found out that their keeper was awful and any shots on target may go in. Still, if you don’t buy a ticket…..
Overall, it was a decent defensive performance, but we need to work on supporting the front players (and then chasing back afterwards!!!) so that we can have more chances to score. We communicated well, and honourable mentions must go to George on debut, Mark B, especially giving midfield a bit of strength and Pete (sorry...Badger) on his outfield debut.
FINAL SCORE 3-0
We have two free weekends now, and then 4 games on four successive Saturdays at home against Preston (don’t ask!), Kettering, Oxford and Ebbsfleet.
Match Attendance: 18, 2 dogs and a guy with a guitar who must of decided playing us a tune as we trudged off to the changing rooms after the match might help – the attendance, probably an Abbey United record!
Mark Case
Abbey United 1-0 Addenbrookes, Abbey United 1-0 Marshalls, Abbey United 2-0 '1-in-4' , Abbey United 1-2 Jagex.
Then, on Sunday 19 October, Abbey United were invited to take part in the '1-in-4 in the City' football tournament, held at Cambridge City FC. As part of this ‘1-in-4 in the City’ campaign, Cambridge City Football Club joined forces with the local mental health charity Cam-mind, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and Cambridgeshire Community Services to host a five-a-side football tournament for local employers.
Abbey United performed much better than had be seen in recent weeks, winning 3 of our 4 group matches before faltering right at the last.
The squad was as follows: GK: Jamie Nightingale, CB: Richard French, CB: Will Horner, CM: Ben Phillips, CM: Craig Harding, FW: Jamie Bates, CB: Shane Lennon.
The tournament was graced by the appearance of former England captain and footballing legend David Beckham*. All the teams posed for photos with David before the matches (and the photos will follow in a later match report). David even came over to us after our first game and asked if he could play for us, but sadly, the organisers wouldn't allow this. *well a pretty good look-a-like anyway!
Abbey United played in the opening fixture of the tournament against a team from Addenbrookes. With the game goal-less and entering the final seconds, Abbey United counter-attacked and a long throw out from Jamie in goal sent Jamie B clear and he slotted the ball through the keepers legs. Final score, 1-0.
Next up, Abbey United found themselves in a match against a side representing Marshalls. This game was much more open than our first, but again Abbey United managed a 1-0 win, this time a much more lucky goal as Will turned to shoot mid way inside the opponents half and mishit the shot – but as we all turned back to concentrate back on defender the ball span when the goalkeeper went to collect in his hands, and it spun underneath him into the goal. Will didn't see it go in, and didn't believe he'd scored at first, but he had. We won the game 1-0.
Realising we were sitting top of our group (albeit it joint top) we knew we had a chance of reaching the final, and our third match was against the host team representing the 1-in-4 campaign. Abbey United won this match 2-0, with a goal a piece for Jamie Bates and Ben Phillips.
This led us onto our final match against a side representing Jagex. We knew we only needed a draw to win the group, however although we'd not conceded a goal throughout the tournament until this point, we went behind after 5 seconds. This was our toughest match and there were chances at either end but with 3 minutes left, their keeper gave the ball away from a clearance straight to Jamie Bates who made no mistake. We just needed to hold on, but were still pushing forward, and then with no more than 20 seconds to go the unthinkable happened, as we conceded again. There was no chance to get an equaliser and we lost 2-1. The defeat left us on 9 points, with Jagex winning the group on 10 points with that last minute win. Most the team went straight over to the burger fan at this point, as we'd been good and stayed away up until this point. All in all, we performed better than we'd probably expected to, and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon out.
Richard French
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Abbey United 2 Millwall Supporters Team 11 - 27 September 2008
A Saturday free from football was on the cards, but fortunately the withdrawal symptoms were saved by the Millwall fans who had offered us a match given both sides 'proper' teams were scheduled to play on the Sunday.
It must have been a first for Abbey United this weekend. Everyone turned up ready for kick off, we were organised before the opposition and we had 5 rolling substitutes! The manager had some work to do, as once again we had no real strikers. 2 members of the old guard were back and selected to play up front, and all those who travelled to Mansfield last week were rewarded, if rewarded is the right word, with a starting place.
The squad was as follows: -
GK: Pete Parnwell, RB: Andrew Lang, LB: James Barringer, CB: Mark Case, CB: Mark Bentley, RM: Tony Tarrant, LM: James Denton, CM Frankie Fry, CM Kyle Scott, FW: Ben Yelton, FW: Mike Osbourn.
Subs: LM: Craig Harding, RM: Justin Innerarity, CM: Richard Chege, CB: Richard French, FW: Craig
The game kicked off with Richard French agreeing to referee the first half. His maths skills were the skills most likely to be required though. The first 20 minutes weren’t even, as such, but showed little of what was to follow. After 25 minutes the score was 1-0, however somehow by half time it was 7-0. Millwall passed the ball round quickly, and more importantly, well! It was acutely obvious that the Millwall side had been playing together for quite some time. We couldn’t get near them, they always had a spare man and even when we could get near them they pulled a trick out of the bag to pass the ball on. We didn’t communicate well, and didn’t keep to our positions as well as we should have done which helped to make their lives a little easier. These skills will come with time when we work out who is best suited to which positions and, rather less technically, when we get to know each others names properly. HALF TIME 0-7
At half time there were no harsh words, no rollicking, just a slight change in formation. We moved to a Jimmy Quinn style 3-5-2 to match their midfield and put one man to mark their danger man. Credit must go to James Denton for the the change at half time and doing a sterling man marking job, and for not hitting me as I kept yelling at him from the touchline to get close.
To say the change in formation worked would be an exaggeration and would give far too much credit to those involved in the decision, but we were certainly better than in the first half. We were quicker to the ball and making Millwall work a bit harder for their chances. On 75 minutes and at 11-0 up Millwall changed their goalkeeper, and after this we pulled 2 goals back. Firstly a well struck free kick from Frankie Fry (realising a life long dream of scoring for Cambridge) on the left hand side from around 25 yards out flew into the far corner of the goal. A comeback was on the cards. A second nearly followed soon after as Richard French progressed out of central defence to clear a loose ball, and a clearance-cum-shot volleyed from near on 50 yards was destined for the top corner before the Millwall keeper scrambled back to tip acrobatically over the bar. The second goal was from Richard Chege who hit a cross-cum-shot from the right hand side around 30 yards out, which floated over the keeper into the centre of the goal, but this was also helped by the keeper being slightly out of position.
FINAL SCORE 2-11
Now, I feel for those of you reading this report thinking ‘blimey, that Abbey United must be rubbish’, I feel it is important to point out their number 7 was playing as part of a professional youth set up last year. A collection of south London non-league clubs may well currently be bouncing around your head, but he was released, apparently, by Chelsea. Yes, you did read that correctly. It is hardly a surprise that he had little trouble skipping past me.
Get in touch if you feel losing on a regular basis is for you, or if you think that you could help us develop a winning mentality. Go to www.abbeyunited.co.uk to find out more.
Mark Case
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Mansfield Town 4 Abbey United 1 - 20 September 2008
It was the start of a bright new era for Abbey United. Quite literally, as we were wearing United’s bright yellow third strip from last year.
The day didn’t start well, leaving my directions on my sofa was not good, but thankfully, all 11 players turned up before kick off and despite the game starting on time the annoyingly picky ref decided that we were short of time and would have to play 40 minutes a half. (Now, I don’t normally moan about ref’s but this bloke seemed to have delusions of grandeur. I have no idea what level he felt he was refereeing at, but it wasn’t a friendly match between two fans teams!!)
Sadly, in a team of 11, we had no goalkeeper. One of the Mansfield lads who had just come along to watch ended up playing for us in goal and did a grand job. I would like to thank him personally, but I have no idea what his name was. There were also several new players in the squad, and the starting XI was….
GK: Mansfield bloke, RB:Jordan Worland, LB:James Barringer, CB:Mark Case, CB: Mark Bentley, RM: Andrew Lang, LM: Jack Rogers, CM: Frankie Fry, CM: Richard French, FW: Jamie Bates and FW: Kyle Scott. There was a rolling sub for the game, as Tom was the last man over, it was he who had the privileged role of watching us.
The opening goal was from a free kick. A ‘good foul’ from Jordan stopped a goal scoring opportunity, but the Mansfield player flicked the ball over the wall and into the corner. Our keeper for the day assured us that the goalscorer had never done that before in his life. Soon after, we hit Mansfield on the break and a good ball over the top was thumped home by debutant Jamie Bates. We were playing some nice football at this stage, but were struggling to communicate with each other, partly due to not knowing each others names and partly due to a slight lack in confidence in ourselves. We couldn’t hold out until half time however, and went in two one down after a mix up from the keeper and Andy saw the ball slip in to the corner of the net. HALF TIME 2-1
A slight reshuffle in the second half saw left back James move to left wing and Mark C move to left back with Jordan moving into the middle and Andy starting the second half on the bench (or on the touchline with the flag depending on how grand you want me to make it sound). Richard started at right back. The plan was to get in behind them in between their full backs and centre halves. Unfortunately, the third goal game early on in the second half and after that we were always struggling. It was probably (i.e. definitely) offside, but alas it’s not worth moaning now. We had some bright play after this, and had a few half chances but it was obvious that we didn’t have any players who would naturally call themselves ‘a striker’. With 15 minutes to go ‘Mansfield bloke’ came out of goal and Mark C went in. A willing, but not natural goalkeeper. Mansfield finished off the scoring with a header from a corner that the goalkeeper (Mark C) really should have claimed.
FINAL SCORE 4-1
The game was followed by ‘snap’ back at the local pub, (For those of you who don’t speak East Midlandsish, snap means food) and the pleasure of watching the second half of Aberdeen versus Dundee United.
Overall, it was a decent performance, considering we didn’t really know each other, didn’t have time for a proper warm up and that we didn’t have a proper goalkeeper. The new players promised to play again, and so there is something to work with for the future. We could have a game against Grays next Sunday, so if you feel Abbey United is for you, get in touch with me or Richard. (markgcase@yahoo.co.uk) and richardfrench@abbeyunited.co.uk )
Mark Case
Abbey United 2 Oxford United 0 – Saturday 22 November 2008
You could be forgiven for thinking I had made this, and the previous results up, especially if you aware of our history. I am yet to check the official Moosenet/Abbey United records, but I think this is the first time we have kept successive clean sheets!
It was a very, very, VERY cold morning as we arrived at Coldhams Common. Colder than Siberia according to a Daily Mail headline I read earlier in the day. Only a matter of time before they come over here, stealing our snow then. We only had 11 players (not having subs in these games makes it very hard!) and the midfielder's that had worked so well last weekend had to be completely changed, as Frankie and Andy were both unavailable. George came in as goalkeeper, meaning that Mark and Mark could reform their normally unsuccessful centre back partnership. Hero of the first hour last week, Lance, returned to play again at left back, seemingly with no intention to leave early to go to watch a United away game!! “Shagger” (real name James) came in for his debut.
GK: George Blackwell, RB: Richard White, LB: Lance Sharman, CB: Mark Case, CB: Mark Bentley, CM: Richard French, CM: James Munroe, LM: James Barringer, RM: Andy Lang, FW: Harry Weller, FW: Jamie Bates
Sub: FW: Jack Rogers
There was a biting wind as well as the freezing cold to deal with in the first half. Maybe we were in Siberia after all. Good football is hard enough on a normal day, but in these conditions it was near enough impossible. Every Oxford goal kick went out for a throw and every ball forward from us was too hard. The Oxford keeper made a great save form a long range shot from Jamie. We played well, considering, and had a few other half chances. The most notable action of the first half was James going down with an injury after a tackle, he hobbled off, and it was looking like we would have to play with 10, until a few minutes later Jack who had turned up late quickly got changed and we were back to eleven!
Half time 0-0.
There was no real changes to make at half time, apart from Jack going up front, and Richard moving to left wing to allow Jamie to come into the centre of midfield.
This move seemed to work eventually, but a tight start to the second half followed, as once again, each side struggled to cope with the wind and cold!
Abbey United defended well, and got their chance after an hour, Jamie hitting a low shot into the bottom corner form 20 yards. United were coping with playing against the wind a lot better than Oxford did. It was 2-0 with 15 minutes to go. A contender for goal of the season as George rolled the ball out, and Whitey played it forward. The ball went in from “Shagger” on the wing leaving Harry with a virtually open goal. Arsenal would have been proud. Well, maybe not proud exactly, but certainly envious. Oxford pressed a bit more after this, but we held on for another clean sheet.
We continue our move up the table next week, at home to Ebbsfleet, a side we beat last year, and hopefully the same set of lads that have played so well in the last couple of weeks will be there again. Abbey United, (currently) miles better than Cambridge United.