Cambridge United 2-1 Hartlepool United: Flick to kick Coconutter Andrew Bennetts match report: You can keep your tiki-taka, your total football, your Route One, any route in fact. You cannot beat a good old-fashioned set piece, honed and perfected on the training ground then executed in the heat of battle. Willie Carr’s “donkey kick” for Ernie Hunt to crash home in 1970; Tomas Brolin’s blind side run behind the wall against Romania in 1994; Roberto Carlos’ individual brilliance with his “banana” kick against France. Nowadays YouTube is awash with outlandish fancy free-kicks, usually by some Japanese team or an Austrian pub side, but the masters were John Beck’s Cambridge United of the early 1990s. Alan Kimble would bomb in a long throw or Lee Philpott would curl in a corner, Liam Daish or Dion Dublin would flick it on, and Steve Claridge or John Taylor would be there to bundle it home, just like they did in training all week. But today’s United side can do it as well, as evidenced by a superb winning goal against Hartlepool today. Practice makes perfect. After the disappointment of Cheltenham on Tuesday night it was encouraging to see an attendance of almost 5,000 at the Abbey on a sunny Autumn afternoon to watch what is, with all due respect, not the most glamorous opposition in the world, albeit the figure was boosted by a good number of local kids’ clubs in the South Stand. Hartlepool were bumping along near the bottom of the League and were managed for the first time by new boss Paul Murray after the sacking of Colin Cooper, while they fielded a fairly young side with the exception of 35-year-old veteran Tommy Miller. United line-up: Dunn; Tait, Nelson, Coulson, Taylor; Chadwick, Hughes, Champion, Donaldson; Appiah, Elliott On the bench: Norris, Lanzoni, Lennon, Naylor, Dunk, Simpson, Bird Richard “definitely not non-League” Money made one change from Tuesday’s defeat, replacing Tom Naylor with the more attack-minded Luke Chadwick, who was nominally one of the wide men with Ryan Donaldson, although both had licence to roam where their instinct took them. The visitors’ tackling was little short of agricultural early on, Matt Crooks clattering Richard Tait inside the first 15 seconds, but ref Johnson applied the unwritten rule that fouls deserving of a yellow or red card do not get punished in the first few minutes of a match, no matter how bad they are. Kwesi Appiah drew the first save from keeper Scott Flinders with a snap shot on 2, and from the ensuing corner Michael Nelson won the header but could only guide it over the top. United were in the ascendant from the start and the first Hartlepool booking came on 9, Neil Austin bringing down the lively Chadwick, while Liam Hughes blasted narrowly wide a minute later. Led by Chadwick, the hosts continued to take the game to the visitors, but could create little from open play. Headers from corners by Tom Champion and Hughes flew high and wide, while a good run down the right by Elliott culminated by a pull-back to Appiah, but he could not generate sufficient power in his header to beat Flinders. United’s territorial supremacy told, though, on 26. Nelson was the creator with a superb through ball down the right channel from deep, and Donaldson stole in behind the Pools defence to flick it coolly past the keeper and into the far corner. 1-0. Chadwick wriggled through a forest of bodies in the box a few minutes later but could not get enough behind his shot to beat Flinders, and Elliott shot wide on 34, while Hughes played a one-two with Appiah and galloped through the middle into the box, only for the ball to bounce off his thigh when he could have shot or slipped it sideways to the unmarked Elliott. Thereafter United lost some of the urgency from their play and began to surrender territory to Hartlepool, encouraging them to push forward. Jonathan Franks fired wide on 37, but otherwise the U’s defence hung on until half-time without too many alarms. The visitors introduced another 35-year-old veteran, Marlon Harewood, at the start of the second half in place of Ryan Brobbel, a journeyman striker who has had more clubs than Leeds have had managers (at the time of writing). Hartlepool took the initiative from the off, Crooks shooting narrowly wide on 49 and Brad Walker drawing a save from Chris Dunn five minutes later. United were becoming a little too reliant on hopeful high balls towards Elliott and Appiah, and just before the hour Harewood made the equaliser, hustling and harrying Tait and Nelson then pulling it back for Brad Walker in acres of space just inside the box to rifle home. 1-1. Chadwick was swiftly withdrawn, his race run, in favour of Naylor, and the U’s gradually began to claw their way back on top. Miller fouled Hughes to present Donaldson with a free-kick opportunity on 64, but his effort curled disappointingly over the wall but well wide. Three minutes later a change for both sides saw Connor Smith replace Franks, and Harrison Dunk come on for Champion. Crooks then fired wide and was booked for a foul on Hughes, while a promising break saw Appiah and Elliott both have shots blocked in close succession. Crooks was replaced by Michael Woods and Walker was booked for a crude felling of Dunk as he made to break away down the left wing on 76. Now United were on top without creating much more than the odd half-chance, but the vast majority of action was now taking place in the Hartlepool half. Hughes was next to be afforded a free-kick opportunity 25 yards out when Elliott was brought down, but his effort was even more underwhelming than Donaldson’s, trundling feebly wide of the left-hand post. The match looked set to meander to a disappointing draw, until a classic set piece three minutes from time won it for the U’s. Richard Tait lined up a long throw from deep on the right, Josh Coulson trotted forward but the throw found Elliott at the near post; he flicked it across goal, and there was Dunk, anticipating the header and running in at pace to nod home from close range, Flinders getting a touch but unable to stop its progress into the net. 2-1. Robbie Simpson then replaced Appiah and United spent much of the four added minutes doing some fairly impressive time-wasting in the far corner. There was one more moment of concern for United when Naylor was harshly judged to have fouled Neil Austin in the centre circle to allow Pools to pack the box, but Walker’s speculative shot from the D did not receive the deflection for which he hoped and Dunn fell on it gratefully. Ultimately United had just about done enough to win the points in a curate’s egg of a performance, neither striker having the greatest game but hamstrung by a fairly haphazard supply line. One gets the feeling that, having hit five goals twice already this season, this team is on the verge of “clicking” consistently, and from what we have seen so far, there is little to fear in a very open division. Luton are top, for goodness’ sake… Statto Corner United today maintained their excellent home record against Hartlepool in the 19 seasons in which the clubs have competed in the same division. They have won 13 times, drawn 3 and lost only 2 games at the Abbey, scoring 37 goals and conceding 12. At Hartlepool the U’s have won 5 times, drawn 8 and lost 4 matches. The clubs have never met in any cup competition. Today Josh Coulson made his 250th appearance for United in all competitions, consisting of 240 starts and 10 as substitute. That encompasses the Football League, the Conference and its playoffs, the FA Cup, the League Cup, the FA Trophy, the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and the late, unlamented Setanta Shield. He has scored 15 goals in total. That total is beaten by only 12 players in the post-1970 era. These are: Steve Spriggs (468), Steve Fallon (451), John Taylor (406), Alan Kimble (373), Tom Finney (368), Andy Duncan (345), Paul Wanless (334), Lindsay Smith (313), Malcolm Webster (286), Terry Eades (272), Jamie Murray (269) and Danny O’Shea (254). Eades also made two season’s worth of appearances before the U’s were elected to the Football League in 1970. This afternoon’s attendance of 4,931 has only been recorded once before at a United game, on 19th March 1991, for a 0-0 home draw with Brentford in the old Division Three. The team that day was: Sheffield, Kearns, Kimble, Dennis, Chapple, O’Shea, Cheetham, Wilkins, Dublin, Taylor (Claridge), Leadbitter (Philpott). Youth product Jamie Kearns made his first and only League appearance for the club at right-back, while goalkeeper Jon Sheffield made his debut on loan from Norwich City after only a few hours’ notice when Steve Berryman, already standing in for the injured John Vaughan, himself reported unfit. “The problem for a keeper in a situation like that is you need to shout to your team-mates in the box, but you don’t know all of their names,” said Sheffield afterwards, who must have been pleased with his clean sheet. Player Ratings Dunn 7. Sound handling and little chance with the goal. Tait 8. Excellent along the full length of the right flank. Taylor 7. Good contribution in defence and supporting the attack. Nelson 7. He’ll never be a Xavi, but when it comes to no-nonsense defending, he will do fine. Coulson 7. A model of consistency. Chadwick 8. United’s best player in the first half with his darting runs from all over the park. Hughes 8. A rock. Champion 6. Not back to his best yet, but that will come in time. Donaldson 7. Always a threat. Elliott 6. Unable to make much impression, although not helped by a fairly poor supply line. Appiah 6. Same problems as Elliott. Naylor 7. Solid and reliable. Dunk 6. Good movement for the winner. Simpson 6. No time to do anything much. Match Summary United gave a performance as patchy as a pirate’s eyewear but found a way to win with a classic set piece just before the end. A team that can grind out a victory like this knows what it takes to get results. Man of the Match Liam Hughes. Rarely flamboyant, always reliable. Ref Watch Johnson 7. Should have clamped down on Hartlepool’s reckless tackling earlier, but did the trick in the end. Soundtrack of the Day RDGLDGRN “Elevators”
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 07:10:53 +0000
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