Remembrance day at the Abbey, and of course the minutes silence was observed impeccably.
After 3 away games on the trot we now have 3 home games in 8 days, and todays game against Bolton looked the hardest to get a win.
Mannion continued in goal, Okedina partnered with Jones in the centre of defence with Dunk and Williams as full backs. Digby and Simper in the middle with Lankester and Brophy wide, Knibbs and Ironside at the front.
Ex-U Iredale got a good reception from U’s fans.
U’s attacked the NRE (presumably to get crosses from the Habbin side of the pitch to make it difficult for their keeper to see the ball) in the first half and won the first corner on 5 minutes, but this came to nothing but allowed Bolton to break and win a corner at the other end, which also came to nothing.
A U’s free kick was headed softly to their keeper, then a U’s break from deep was stopped with a cynical block, but no free kick came.
Jones and Bolton’s Kachunga had a set to and went head to head which resulted in them both being booked.
U’s found a new attacking option with long throws from Simper (after wiping any moisture from the ball with handily placed towels) and they caused Bolton defenders some problems.
Knibbs had a soft shot on the turn go straight to the keeper.
Bolton showed they were not afraid to use strength to stop U’s players, Lankester seemed to be targeted most, and got nothing despite being pushed out of the way as he chased the ball!
Bolton had a shot go well over, then a U’s through ball was smothered by the keeper right on the edge of his penalty area, the linesman was well placed and gave nothing, however the referee gave the keeper a free kick!
Lankester cut inside for a shot deflected wide, and the half ended 0-0. Not much between the teams, Bolton looking dangerous on the break, with their main attacks coming from long diagonal balls from the back! Neither keeper really troubled. Very little in the way of high crosses from the Habbin, so no chance to see if their keeper could spot the ball against the sun!
U’s started the second half brightly, winning a couple of corners, then a good move showed Knibbs had his shooting boots on today when Lankester squared the ball for him to shot, but the keeper pulled off a great save.
Play switch to the other end and a Bolton shot went high and wide. A U’s corner was headed to the keeper by Jones, then another Lankester shot went just over.
A powerful Bolton shot was parried by Mannion, soon after a corner taken by Iredale was headed wide by a forward
Dempsey had been booked in the first half, then blocked Knibbs from taking the ball past him so got a second yellow followed by a red card on 74 minutes. Twice this season at home the opposition have had a man sent off, and each time the 10 men have scored twice against our 11 (Barnsley and Burton in case you didn’t remember!), so it didn’t look good!
Iredale was replaced om77 minutes, and received applause from the U’s fans.
Smith and Tracey replaced Brophy and Lankester for the last 10 minutes, and Bolton looked dangerous but U’s stopped them scoring.
At the end of 5 minutes of added time Knibbs again had a good chance saved, and the game ended 0-0.
This was a much better performance. Limiting Bolton to only 1 shot on goal is great, and having 5 shots on goal at the other end is good, but we have to take some of the chances we make. The players worked well (round pegs inround holes!) as a team, Okedina making use of his pace to stop anyone running through, Jones being solid against any aerial attacks, Williams and Dunk doing well against their wingers. Ironside had a good battle leading the line, and Knibbs this week got shots on target which is an improvement over Curzon! Simper was my Man of the Match, doing the defensive midfield job well alongside Digby, but willing to get forward when the opportunity arose, and his long throws are a useful weapon to have.
I was surprised how physical the Bolton players were. Lankester seemed to get the most attention. We had 2 players booked, Jones and Digby, Bolton had 6 different players booked (Kachunga, Dempsey (twice), Bradley, Jones, Santos and Beck, also their manager Ian Evatt was also booked, he had been spoken to at least once before during the game. He seemed to constantly be outside of his technical are, and sometimes ventured onto the pitch while play was going on!
The officials were all from the Armed Forces, apparently a first in the EFL. I thought they did a pretty good job, the referee trying to let play go on rather than whistle for every minor thing, and being strong when making a decision.
Next up is Curzon Ashton in the FA Cup replay. If we keep the same tempo we will be OK, but they will not be a walk over. With Nathan Jones going to Southampton, Mark Bonner is again a bookies favourite for the manager position at Luton. Cambridgeshire Live reckons he is not interested, we live in hope they are correct!
Terry