A bright autumn day to be sitting in traffic! The roadworks on Newmarket Road were causing chaos, not helped by more on Whitehill Road, and the start of the match was delayed by 15 minutes to give a little more time for fans to get to the Abbey. Actually i think most fans were in the ground at 3pm, maybe a few more than usual late comers!
Plenty of people were wearing their Syd Barrett inspired shirt, celebrating what would have been his 80th birthday, and in support of Mental Health. I started listening to Pink Floyd when Dark Side of the Moon came out, so after Syd’s time in the band, but I knew what Shine On you Crazy Diamond was all about.
U’s starting line up: Eastwood in goal, back 4 of Bennett, Watts, Heffernan, and Bradshaw. Mpanzu and Ball defensive midfield, Knight, Kaikai and Heath attacking midfield with Ahadme up front.
Breeze, Bangura-Williams, Moxon, Lavery, Appere, Bauer, Curtis, on the bench.
U’s had a very slow opening few minutes, Blackpool looking much livelier and caused a goalmouth scramble ended with U’s conceding a corner, which came to nothing as the referee gave U’s a free kick for pushing in the goal area. As the players were moving away there was a mild altercation, which went further as more players got involved and it ended with Honeyman being sent off on 6 minutes for violent conduct. The video shows Honeyman swinging his arm at Ball right in front of the referee, so a pretty clear decision. It set the tone for Blackpool to be rather robust in their challenges, trying to get a reaction to even up the numbers, and their fans were loudest when a U’s player fouled one of their players!
I have been to enough matches to be worried when U’s play 10 (or 9 or 8!) men. As expected Blackpool defended their goal very well, and looked to hit on the break. U’s were content to pass the ball around, mostly to and fro along the back line, rarely troubling their keeper. Knight, Watts and Ahadme had headers off target. Watts ventured forward with the ball and instead of the expected cross tried a shot from the edge of the penalty area which Peacock-Farrell in the Blackpoll goal did well to push away.
U’s made a couple more half chances, but no goals.
Half time: 0-0. 50/50 draw ticket 26702 won £594. In discussion with my mates I predicted a Blackpool winner in the 96th minute!
Moxon came on for Mpanzu at the start of the second half and U’s looked a little livelier, Peacock-Farrrell making a great save from a Ahadme header. Kaikai seemed to be pushed over as he was about to shoot in the penalty area, but no penalty was given (we would have missed like against Cardiff many years ago!).
Heart in mouth time when Blackpool did manage a break away which required Eastwood to make a save at the expense of a corner.
On the hour Lavery replaced Heath, and the pressure finally told when Knight set up Ahadme for a shot which took s light deflection and the ball went in to the net at the near post. 1-0 on 82 minutes.
RBW came on for Knight, Peacock-Farrell made another great save to keep the score to just one goal. Only 4 minutes of added time (so my half time prediction wouldn’t have come true) where the ball was mostly held in the corner by Lavery, although Blackpool managed a long shot over the bar.
Final score: 1-0.
559 ‘Pool fans in a crowd of 7295 would have been annoyed their good start was ended by the sending off. The game would have been much nicer 11 v 11!
My theory is that 2 or 3 of our players think they are the “spare man” and don’t have to do so much basic work! Pa
Blackpool certainly defended well, and their keeper made 3 outstanding saves. U’s managed 7 shots on target out of 24 (compared to Blackpool’s 1 out of 6).
In the first half our passing was very slow, it improved in the second half but too often there were players in space but not seen.
Knight had a very quiet first half, Heath got more of the ball but didn’t often beat his defender. This reversed in the second half with Knight linking well with Bennett, Heath often letting Bradshaw be the wide man.
Moxon had an odd few minutes where twice he got the ball, looked up and passed it straight to a Blackpool player! Perhaps the bright sunshine affected his vision? maybe he wasn’t a Pink Floyd fan and didn’t like the U’s shirt?
Ahadme was the sponsors Man of the Match for scoring and having other good chances, but I thought Bennett had a great game.
The win means U’s stay 5th (or equal 3rd!) with the poorest goal difference with Stockport and Huddersfield on 16 points. Next action is in a weeks time away to 19th placed Barnsley, never an easy place to go, but with the team spirit we have at the moment we fear no-one.
The traffic chaos continued after the match, anyone wanting a quick getaway was out of luck!
Come on you U’s!