Is there anyone who likes a 12:30 kick off? Certainly not the 3 people who turned up at 2:30pm thinking it was a 3pm kick off!
Apparently AIG are the majority shareholders of Salford City, and in January they splashed out £400k (Rising to £600K) to buy Graydon. Our most expensive signing is still Steve Claridge at £250k in 1992, although some might say Gary Gardener last year!
I wonder if any fan has the name of Princewell Ehibhatiomhan on the back of their shirt? I was surprised that not more than 200 made the trip to the Abbey, they were on a 4 match winning run and look set for the play offs.
Starting line up: Eastwood in goal, back 3 of Watts, Jobe and Gibbons; Bennett, Brophy, Mpanzu, Ball, Knight in the middle, Kaikai and Appere up front. Another copy and paste team selection!
On a sunny day U’s attacked the NRE in the first half and were well on top for the first 20 minutes or so, corners causing some problems for the Salford defence. Gibbons missed a great chance to give us the lead when his sidefoot shot from 8 yards hit the side netting.
A good block by our defence set up Knight for a run from the half way line, he fed the ball right for Kaikai to run on and shoot, a defender got a foot in to deflect the ball to the keeper. Later Kaikai had a curling shot from the left side go wide of the far post.
The rest of the half was pretty much a stalemate, both teams having periods of possession without doing much with the ball to make good chances, but their keeper was the busier.
Half time: 0-0. 50/50 ticket number 33836 won £649.
Early in the second half U’s took the lead. A free kick from Brophy in front of the dugouts went towards the edge of their penalty area and Gibbons got on the end to loop the ball over the keeper and into the net. 1-0 on 49 minutes.
A good run by Knight set up Kaikai for a 20 yard shot pushed over by the keeper, and Kaikai tried another curling shot from the left which again missed the far post.
Salford had a chance on 74, a long ball went through to Eastwood who controlled the ball and cleared not very well to set up Salford for a shot, but the defence was on hand to cover and a cross was grabbed by Eastwood.
Soon after Salford fashioned their own chance when Graydon was put through on our left but Eastwood did well to block the shot.
Lavery, Mayor and Smith came on after 67 minutes for Appere, Brophy and Kaikai.
Late on Lavery was put through but couldn’t make enough space for a decent shot, then Mpanzu was taken out in their area for a very strong penalty shout but nothing was given.
Salford had a couple of half chances late on with a shot going high over the bar and a header also over by a yard or so.
Final score: 1-0.
6500 home fans saw a deserved victory. Salford had slightly more possession and apparently had 3 shots on target, I can only recall one! We had 7 on target.
Salford also could have seen a couple of red cards for late and dangerous challenges, both in front of the dugouts. The second was towards the end of the game and caused a bit of handbags as players squared up to each other, Gibbons seeing yellow for his part in the pushing and shoving. Our other booking was for Mpanzu punching the ball away as it went out for a throw!
As usual Appere worked hard up front, but got little in the air from their big defenders, When ha did get the ball to feet it was with his back to goal and was quickly crowded out. Kaikai and Knight looked dangerous when they could run with the ball.
Brophy caused problems with set pieces, and gets the assist for the goal. Mpanzu seemed to have a bit of an off day, lots of pointing but for me not enough doing!. Ball protected the back line nicely, and the defence did well to restrict Salford to one chance. Eastwood needs to keep working on his kicking, putting the ball straight out or nowhere near any of our players is not good enough, but he did make 1 great save. Gibbons was immense. In defence, in attack and he scored the winner!
In the first half the Salford defence seemed to push up high, so when Lavery came on there should have been chances to exploit his pace, but it only happened once.
MK Dons losing at home to Barnet was nice, U’s stay 3rd with a game in hand. Bromley won to keep their place at the top, Notts County and Swindon also won to keep the pressure on in the play off places.
Next weeks game for U’s at Barnet should be a good one. Notts County are at Harrogate, Bromley at Barrow, so away wins most likely. Salford are at home to MK Dons so a home win or draw would be good in that game!
Looking at the calendar Tuesday 21st April would be a good shout for our rearranged match against Grimsby, but I would prefer 28th April as I am away the previous week!
Up the U’s