Imagine this: You live in the north of Norway, inside the Artic Circle. Land of the midnight sun in summertime, but at the start of the year it is dark all day!
Astrid (Wife): Ole, it is your 50th birthday this year, what do you want to do to celebrate?
Ole (Husband): I want to see Cambridge United.
Astrid: Really?
Ole: Yes, it is a few years since I saw them beat the Pish at the Abbey.
Astrid: Really?
Ole: We could see a match at Wembley too.
Astrid: Really?
Ole: And maybe a Women’s European cup match.
Astrid: Really? And what are we going to do about the kids?
Ole: Take them with us.
Astrid: All of them?
Ole: Yep. It is my birthday.
And that is possibly how it came to pass that 13 Norwegians were at the Abbey for the Swindon match. Read more about their visit here:
Following the poor performance at Barnet the same team started: Eastwood in goal, back 3 of Watts, Jobe and Gibbons; Bennett, Brophy, Mpanzu, Ball, Mayor in the middle, Knight behind Appere up front.
U’s attacked the NRE in the first half, and immediately put Swindon on their back foot. First good chance came when Knight found Mayor in their penalty area, Mayor’s shot hitting the side netting.
Mpanzu had a shout for a penalty as he was pushed by a defender, only a goal kick given.
Soon after Gibbons put over a deep cross for the leaping Bennett to out jump a defender, but his header went wide.
U’s opened the scoring when Brophy went on a run towards goal before being felled, no foul given, but the ball ran Mayor who found Gibbons out wide who to cut the ball back for Knight to shoot home from around 12 yards. Good advantage from the referee!
Swindon had offered nothing in attack, a deep cross was caught then dropped by Eastwood but he was able to grab the loose ball before any damage was done.
U’s continued to run the show. Appere did well on the left wing before crossing the ball for Knight to shoot over from a similar position from which he scored. Then in a similar move Gibbons set up Brophy for a 15 yard shot which keeper Ripley blocked then a defender cleared, followed by another shot from Brophy which went just wide.
U’s had a scare towards the end of the half when Holman was able to outpace Watts with a run from halfway, but his shot from a tight angle was blocked by Eastwood, the first real save he had to make.
Brophy was shielding the ball near the Swindon corner flag when first one defender held him back, then another pushed him over. No free kick despite the linesman being a yard away! Swindon cleared and managed to force a corner. If they had scored it would have been a real injustice, but they didn’t! Little did we know the big injustice would occur later!
Knight had another long shot saved.
Half time: 1-0, 50/50 draw ticket 36930 won £552.
The second half continued as the first, Knight having a good dancing run into their penalty area, and with only the keeper to beat he shot and the keeper blocked. A step to the side and he could have rolled the ball into an empty net.
Swindon made a load of substitutions which did reduce the number of chances U’s were making. Another good penalty shout as he tried to cut inside a defender before being blocked, nothing given.
More U’s chances were made, but not taken.
Kaikai and Lavery came on for Knight and Appere on 80 minutes, a few minutes later Hoddle and Nevitt replaced Brophy and Mpanzu.
Some good passing put Bennett through on goal, his shot blocked by keeper Ripley, then Gibbons shot over.
Into 5 minutes of added time and the sucker punch, the ball played between defenders for McGregor to shoot across goal, the ball taking a touch off Gibbons to deflect it into the corner of the net.
Lavery had a chance to win the game when Jobe headed the ball into space, Lavery got to the ball but Ripley blocked, the follow up shot from Jobe blocked.
Last action was a powerful shot from Mayor which was goalbound before a defender stuck out a foot to deflect it wide.
Final score: 1-1.
7366 people saw “nightlight robbery”, although 1034 Swindon fans might disagree! Such a one sided game, it makes you wonder how Swindon are just behind U’s. But then I suppose last week Barnet could wonder how U’s are so high in the table!
After their goal went in Gibbons was having a real go at Mayor for not marking his man. Mayor was caught ball watching, allowing Holman to run behind him into space.
Man of the Match as to be Swindon keeper Ripley who single handedly kept them in the game with a string of good saves. For U’s it was Knight, he looked unplayable. He found space then ran past defenders, and on another day could have had a hat trick.
Brophy too seemed able to beat any defender near him, and Appere had one of his best games, holding the ball and setting up moves. Mpanzu too was able to show his class at times.
As the 65 minute mark approached I was wondering if Harris would make any substitutions as the team were playing so well. Who would he replace? As it turned out he decided to stay with what was doing so well until the last 10 minutes. I suspect there was a bit of saving legs for the game at Cheltenham on Monday, although does 10 minutes make any difference to a young lad like Knight? If Mayor had been replaced by Purrington would we have conceded? We will never know.
U’s move back to 3rd in the L2 table, 4th placed Notts County on the same points. 6 games to play (5 for Swindon) and 6 teams looking to be in the top 3 automatic promotion positions.
Cheltenham are safe from relegation, and if we play anything like we did against Swindon we should expect a win. Then 2 six pointers in a row with a home match against Notts County followed by the away game at Bromley. It is great having so much to play for, but working out permutations is worrying!
Up the U’s