The U's-letter: Issue #19
Two away games, two competitions, two very different results
It’s been a Jekyll and Hyde type of week. Saturday saw United travel away from home for the first time this season, and also notch up their first defeat of the season. Losing by a single goal margin to a Swindon side that are somewhat fancied to do well this year and who were one of the strongest teams across the whole league in the second half of last season isn’t really the issue. The issue is the manner at which those goals went in. Jordan and Caspell spoke excellently at length about that on Monday’s Review Show.
And then on Tuesday, it was a pretty stark contrast. Clearly something in Harris’ Saturday post-match media comments struck a chord, United looked much more solid and managed to come away from the West Country with a 2-0 win and safe progression to the next round of the Carabao Cup. There was a fair amount to be enthused about there, despite Rovers’ startlingly poor display, which Jules and Jordan will speak about on Friday’s Preview Show.
Now we get to look forward to a home game welcoming league minnows Harrogate Town to the Abbey. Prioritising on what looks like a kind opening set of home games feels crucial to set us up for success this season.
If you haven’t already consider being a total legend and signing up to the Coconut Tier, our paid subscription that gets you access to at least one feature article a week, extra pod content every month and first dibs on merch (more on that coming soon…).
What’s New? 📰
Whatever the opposite of a glamour tie is, that’s what the U’s got in the Carabao Cup, drawing Charlton at home.
Our resident columnist and original friend of the pod Matt Ramsay has penned a great piece looking at Harris’ culture-first rebuild.
It’s retro shirt day on Saturday against Harrogate, so get your Fujitsu replica out if you’ve got one.
Colchester away on Tuesday is approaching a sell out - don’t miss out!
We’ve started an exciting project with the amazing local artist and United fan Adam Bridgland, where we’re aiming to create a matchday poster for every home game. This is the first one from a few weeks ago from Adam, keep an eye on our socials for this weekend’s one. If you want to get involved, get in touch!
At The Match ✍️
Swindon 3-2 U’s: A Real Reality Check… - By Julian Roberts
It was all going so well. When Brophy cracked home his first goal of the season, continuing the impressive form in front of goal that he ended the last campaign with, U’s fans were understandably giddy. Swindon have been tipped by a fair few EFL expert pundits to go well this year. They ended last year really strongly, and despite lingering off field problems that nearly put Saturday’s whole game in jeopardy, Holloway has definitely got them playing. With the other August away games of Colchester and Bristol Rovers on the horizon, both of which were also decently fancied pre-season, three points here would have put a good amount of wind in United’s sails. But as it was, United managed to sink themselves.
After half an hour of commanding control, with nearly no threat from Swindon, it took a 2 minute collapse to totally turn the tables – the second coming from the most obvious goalscorer of the whole afternoon, Harry Smith. The third goal came just after half time, but it was worrying how poor defensively all three goals were considering what you expect from a ‘Neil Harris team’, which is a phrase we’ve heard a lot this week. Whichever way you look at it - organisational, mental, individual - it was a mess.
United got themselves back in it in the second half through Sullay Kaikai, who I think has now been involved in every goal that United have scored so far this season except the second at Rovers, but it really could and should have been so much more. Harris did give it a go, the game often looking extremely chaotic with only two at the back as we tried to throw the proverbial at it, but it never really felt particularly threatening.
After the game, Harris was very forthright in his assessment. It was honest to say the least. Those goals aren’t allowed in his team. That’s not the standards we set, etc. The proof of whether him setting those standards actually works and cuts out these errors will be in the pudding.
Bristol Rovers 0-2 U’s (League Cup First Round): Comfortably Done
And maybe that pudding came early on Tuesday night. Before Saturday’s defeat, an away draw at the far end of England’s portion of the M4 was about as bad as it got. It was a game even Harris himself said he didn’t care too much about – not just the game either, the whole competition in fact. But in hindsight, playing a game as quickly as Tuesday might have been the best medicine for us.
Harris mentioned that the team had had a meeting on Monday, where the defending situation was discussed in depth. He wanted to see an instant response, and that’s what he got.
Helped though we were by a really poor and blunt looking Bristol Rovers side, United stood strong all game. When you manage to keep a clean sheet, get 90 minutes into your returning young centre half, get a goal in both of your strikers, and emphatically respond to a lot of questions asked on Saturday, it’s the sign of a job well done. Among both fans and players, it will have been a big confidence booster.
Appéré opened the scoring, showing exactly how we should be playing to him - let him sit on the shoulder of defenders, run channels, and get people feeding balls to him on the ground that he can chase. Not lumping it persistently at his head all afternoon. He’ll work and work, try and try and go again, and one will come off. This time it was a great ball from Kaikai, solid movement from Appéré, and a tidy left-footed finish. A nice goal to see your number 9 score.
The second came off the bench, and I think we should all be delighted that Loft has got an early taste of a goal. A great ball in from Gibbons, Loft ghosting behind the centre half who was daydreaming, and glanced it home.
An honourable mention to two excellent performances: the aforementioned Gibbons, who defensively showed his solidity and no doubt will have caught Harris’ eye as someone a bit more solid than Bennett potentially, and on the other side Zak Bradshaw. It’s the first time we’ve seen him in action, but he looked impressive. All in all a job well done, now let’s see it again on Saturday where it matters more.
A Question Of Standards
“What we’ve done is completely change the environment here. It was really sloppy and loose when I walked in the building last year, too relaxed and laid back. I didn’t like it."
View From The Away End 🧐
Swindon - Rich from The Loathed Strangers
It goes without saying that I was very pleased with the three points. Of the three games this season, Cambridge are the only side who didn’t have an answer for Harry Smith, who was kept quiet by Aden Flint and Calum Chambers in our other matches. Sometimes it can be as simple as that in League Two.
The officiating was frustrating, and Neil Harris fairly pointed out two key incidents of the game to the media that both went Swindon’s way. Ultimately, Cambridge were masters of their own demise for goals one and three but it was a very good finish from Kaikai to make it 3-2. I expected Cambridge to throw the kitchen sink at Town for 30 minutes but it didn’t really happen.
It was heartening to see James Brophy return to the County Ground after beginning his journey with Swindon from Edgware Town a decade ago. He faced a challenging spell that proved essential for his growth and seeing him now as an established EFL footballer is genuinely quite nice.
Most predictions place Cambridge in mid-table, which makes sense after seeing the current side. Many of those challenges could be remedied by strengthening the attack, a task I know you’re looking to resolve.
Best of luck until we meet again!
Bristol Rovers - Short and sweet here, taken from Charlie Hayne’s X account
13 games without a win, this is becoming a joke now. Can’t believe how bad that was tonight. These pretend footballers from last season need to go now.
Absolutely shocking & spineless. None of us deserve this.
FANCY BEATING US AT EFL FANTASY? CLICK BELOW TO JOIN 👇
Opposition Preview 🔮
Harrogate (H) - 8th place - Saturday 16th August
Last 5 (all comps): LDW/WL - (The slash indicates the seasons changing.) Harrogate have started pretty well, beating a Bristol Rovers side away from home that we’ve already spoken plenty about above on opening day, and then only missing out on all three points at home to Grimsby from a last-minute equaliser.
Last time out: Harrogate 5-4 U’s, 30th April 2021. I doubt anyone remembers this night at all because it wasn’t traumatic or harrowing in any way whatsoever.
Our H2H: P2, W1, D0, L1
Manager: Simon Weaver. The son of the club’s owner, Weaver is the EFL’s longest serving manager having been at the club since 2009.
One to watch: Shawn McCoulsky. Having signed from Maidenhead United off the back of a 17 goal season there, the number 9 won a penalty against Grimsby that put Town 2-1 ahead and will be the goal threat.
Former U’s players: Not that I can see.
Subscribe to The Coconut Tier to get:
📚At least one article like this every week
🎧Bonus podcast content every month
👕First dibs on upcoming merch drops
And you can show off to your mates that you support UTAS and you’re not a round dodger.
Under The Other Stands 🏟️
Another weekend where none of the other relegated sides managed to win - in fact all four of us lost. Crawley lost 2-1 at home to Newport, Bristol Rovers by the same scoreline at Fleetwood, us you know about, and the other…
Shrewsbury are really the headline from the weekend, losing 4-0 at Tranmere. Lots of pundits tipped them to be the team at most trouble of sliding straight through the division as we’ve seen happen a few times recently, and Saturday will have done nothing to rectify that. It was probably all summed up by Will Boyle getting two yellows in one minute, in separate incidents, to get his marching orders.
There’s only three teams with a perfect record: Crewe, Fleetwood, Chesterfield. Crewe’s first half performance was particularly impressive - all their goals have come in the first half so far this season, scoring five, which is over a quarter of the way to last season’s whole tally of first half goals of 18.
Stats Corner 🔢
Swindon have gained more points from losing positions than any side in the top four tiers since the start of last season, which is 28 points. Forget the awful defending, this is the real reason we lost…
It was great to see Mamadou Jobe play all 90 minutes on Tuesday. Guess when his last start was? Bristol Rovers away under Monk at the end of the 2024 season, before being headbutted by the singer from Coldplay and being out for the rest of the season.
Tuesday night was also United’s first away victory at the Memorial Ground since October 2003.
According to Transfermarkt, Glenn Morris at Gillingham now holds the League 2 record for most clean sheets. Going back how far, and how accurate, it’s hard to tell, but it sounds impressive.
And according to Opta, Saturday saw the joint-most 90th-minute winners scored in the EFL since 2013/14 when they started recording these stats, with five late goals. Exciting stuff.
MK Dons are still yet to concede a shot on target. Ominous.
In Case You Missed It 🧐
Thanks for reading this week’s U’s-letter. Send us any comments or suggestions to include in next week’s issue to: hello@undertheabbeystand.com