“Your values become your destiny.”
Mahatma Ghandi
People often remind me that there are more important things in life than football but we must never underestimate its power for good and its ability to give our lives colour and friendship. The game was preceded by a moment’s applause joined in, enthusiastically, by all present. It didn’t matter that Crewe fans didn’t know Andy Pickard or Dean Parmenter or the victims of the Westminster knife attacks which claimed two innocent young lives. When it comes to it, whoever we support, real fans recognise the bond which binds us all together, the love of a team and experiences which we couldn’t hope to have any other way. I’ve never seen a club servant mourned so clearly as Andy Pickard, a lovely, kind man, universally admired and respected. He would have been delighted, and not a little surprised, to see all the stewards and staff lined up on the touchline out of respect for him as a person.
In addition, it was a CFU Takeover day at the Abbey, celebrating 25 years of CFU, an organisation instrumental in saving the club as we slipped out of the League and almost disappeared entirely. Of course there is, and has been, much more to CFU than reacting to crises and firefighting. It supports diversity and a multitude of good causes and represents the fans’ voice to the club. Although we are fully independent of the club we have given it a lot of support over the years and it was good to see Alex Tunbridge give us credit for that in his programme notes. Our committee is fully elected and accountable. We know who our members are and what they think and our organisation is fully transparent. In essence we are a good model, in my opinion, for the rapidly evolving Shadow Board. I believe that in order to have credibility, we have to be able to show just how we represent fans and how we are answerable to them. At half time Brian Attmore, Dave Matthew Jones and Nick Pomeroy explained our history to Mike Barnes far more eloquently and knowledgeably than I could. Well done too to Emma Smith and Terry Wilby for their efforts in raising money during November in memory of Robert Osborn and in support of the British Heart Foundation and The Cambridge United Foundation. Together we raised over £1,000. Perhaps we should have been sponsored for shivering in our T shirts as well?!
United warmed up in CFU T-shirts. Surely they would be inspired? In fact we played pretty well and created at least two chances that we should have taken. We lost Morrison to injury but it was good to see Bennett, Jobe, McConnell and Glenn Hoddle playing. The announcer did call him Glenn didn’t he? The Referee wasn’t awful but he did seem to miss the goalie picking up a back pass and handling outside his area. At least he was keeping up with play. Booth, the Crewe keeper, later invited his manager’s scorn, having annoyed the always objectively fair Habbinites all afternoon. Brophy was playing really well. Surely he wouldn’t be subbed today? Jobe and Bennett could easily have scored from his crosses. Crewe didn’t look to be in it really but you always wonder what will happen if you don’t take chances and allow your opponents breathing space. I was impressed with Hoddle’s vision and skill. It was hard to believe that this game was his full debut. We are going to see a lot more of him. McConnell too was finding good passes and was mobile and industrious. We needed them to step up. Mpanzu was suspended and other midfielders unavailable. There are still vacancies in the striking department. They seemed to get worse when Appere failed to appear in the second half. Surely we won’t be seeing the recall of Ryan Loft? We could do with a goalscorer and a big target man. Not that I am much of a tactician.
We seemed to go to sleep a bit in the second half. We lost shape and passes went astray. Some balls were lumped up front more in hope than expectation. Then, inevitably, Crewe scored. Even now I’m not quite sure how it happened. Our defence seemed a little sluggish let’s say. The game became turgid and Booth attracted fury from the home crowd having collapsed as if shot a couple of times at least. Exasperated United forwards complained to the Ref that he was being conned. He just shook his head. Crewe’s timewasting fed United’s motivation and after Ben Knight came on it was a different game. Crewe’s complacency disappeared as we attacked with pace and purpose. This was a different Knight. Confident, pacey and with just a hint of swagger, he looked the player we all thought he could be. His cross was bundled in by Jobe at the second attempt and we began to believe that we would win. The momentum was all ours now. The Crewe support became silent-always a good sign. In the last minute Purrington was pulled down in the box and Booth was booked. He was partly responsible for our first goal and very lucky that he hadn’t been booked for time wasting earlier. He dived the right way for the penalty but it was too powerful for him. Knight peeled away in triumph and Booth sulked. Perhaps he knew that his manager Lee Bell would not be impressed with him or his team at the end. I’m not sure that I would agree with Neil Harris that we had hundreds of chances or that it was our best performance of the season but the last ten minutes or so showed United as I love to see them, aggressive, full of purpose and determined to score. This team is full of promise.
On CFU Takeover day, I wished I’d known that I could look forward to such moments in the dark days of 2005. And that one day the law would make such horrendous mismanagement impossible. It was a day to remember how far fans’ groups have come and how much they can achieve.