The U's-letter: Issue 21
It begs the question: will we only win on Tuesday nights?
It’s been another up and down sort of week. A narrow but frustrating loss at Bristol Rovers was followed up by a Tuesday night win in the cup that once again did quite a lot to impress. Granted, Charlton made 11 changes, but the front two of Oloafe and Kelman were signed for a combined fee totalling around £5 million. So despite the relative youth of a lot of their squad, this was still an impressive victory. And bear in mind how notoriously productive Charlton’s academy has been of late; it’s fair to say their young players are the cream of the EFL crop.
Another one for Brophy, Kouassi getting off the mark, and a goal for the left-back Bradshaw - who has impressed an awful lot in the few appearances he’s made - resulted in a very satisfying evening. The reward? An evening out in West London for a visit to Craven Cottage. Lovely stuff.
The challenge is to make this a perfect end to the week as well. As you’ll see in the Stats Corner further down this newsletter, Harris only has two back-to-back wins as United manager, the latest of which were his first two games of this managerial spell, against Stockport and Crawley. Charlton in the cup was the first of three home games, and the two coming up in the league could really kick start our season. Start with Saturday against a Newport side whose results haven’t quite reflected a start to the season that has been more positive than many expected, and go from there.
What’s New? 📰
Great cup draw in the Carabao Cup Third Round as we draw Fulham away. A trip to Craven Cottage with a few thousand United fans in tow (and all of our mates who fancy a day out probably). Back when we said we weren’t interested in the Carabao cup, we were lying. (Anyone know if you can get a good deal on Carabao cans?)
This is the last U’s-letter before Monday’s deadline day. It closes at 7pm, apparently. Will we see an exciting day of business, a few last minute grabs, maybe even shifting on a few unwanted assets? We can hope.
Injury update: Harris last week confirmed Morro is still out for a few weeks with the horrible sounding bruised lung. Korey Smith, meanwhile, will feature for the new U21s team, but we won’t see him for around four weeks or so. Lavery might even be a bit sooner than that.
At The Match ✍️
Bristol Rovers 1-0 U’s: Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe meh - By Julian Roberts
After a bouncing Tuesday, there’s nothing like the comedown of a Saturday to follow it. All that energy, all that enthusiasm, all that positivity, sucked right out of you in one drab half of football with a grand total of zero shots. That’s what football will do to ya.
It’s actually been a game that has divided opinion somewhat. Many feel frustrated by not backing up such a solid performance on Tuesday night at Colchester. They think it’s just another sign of the worrying inconsistency we’ve kicked off the season with. And most of all they also worry about Harris not being able to communicate his attacking coaching at one end, and be firm enough to stop the soft goals conceded at the other. In one form or another, these are all completely valid points of view to have.
I personally came out of Saturday feeling different. To me, this was always going to be a tough assignment. The fact that Rovers were yet to win a game only heightened that; it’s something in the footballing folklore and the mythological otherworldly forces that surround it that teams are sometimes just ‘due one’. They just had to win at some point. They are, also, not a side to be underestimated; widely predicted to bounce straight back, they’re a team that got themselves quite impressively relegated and have since kept the bulk of a decent League One squad and reunited with a legendary and successful former manager. Reportedly dealing with one of the division’s highest budgets too, the equation stacked up against us.
Not to say that on the day they were exceptional. They were, in fact, no better than United on the evidence we saw. First half they dominated, using the home crowd to their advantage to capitalise on possession, but only really creating the one clear-cut chance after some lacklustre defending from the throw down United’s left was crossed in and Harrison found himself unmarked. We’ve described too many goals exactly like that this season.
In the second half though, the script was flipped. This time it was us who dominated the ball but struggled to create much, until stoppage time when Brophy’s pull back somehow evaded Kouassi standing unmarked 4 yards from goal.
It’s understandably frustrating to lose a football match in this way after the shift we’d put in on Tuesday. But I’m choosing patience; if Kouassi’s chance goes in, we’d forget the rest and praise the character of staying in the game and scoring a late equaliser. It’s too fine a margin for me to criticise them too much, but it’s reliant on us backing it up in games we should win: the two league home games coming up being perfect examples. There’s no excuses for too many slip ups in those.
U’s 3-1 Charlton Athletic: Into the hat - By Freddie Owers
The U's advanced to the third round of the Carabao Cup thanks to a convincing 3-1 win over Charlton Athletic on Tuesday night.
Goals from James Brophy, Kylian Kouassi and Zak Bradshaw saw United soar past a youthful Addicks side, whose only response was an Ibrahim Fullah goal just before half time.
Harris' side made the stronger start to the game and, perhaps unlike other games so far this season, we were perfectly rewarded for our sustained pressure when we raced into a 2-0 lead within the first half-hour.
The first of the two goals coming thanks to some smart interplay out from the back which led to Brophy sweeping home after a tidy Elias Kachunga cutback after fifteen minutes.
Kouassi got on the end of an inch-perfect Bradshaw ball just fifteen minutes later, before impressively holding off his defender and slotting under Ashley Maynard-Brewer in the Addicks net to double the U's advantage.
Despite an assured first half display, the visitors were gifted a route back into the game just a minute before the interval. A mix-up playing out from the back left young midfielder Fullah with time and space to lash home form the edge of the box to halve the deficit.
Despite the blip, United bounced back positively and restored the two-goal cushion within ten minutes of the restart. A dangerous Brophy cross was eventually met by Kachunga, whose effort was scrambled into the path of Bradshaw to slot home a third from six yards out.
Harris made a series of sensible changes to ensure the U's would see out the game, and that we did. A fairly uneventful 35 minutes featuring a Karoy Anderson red card deep into stoppage time meant that United ran out convincing winners and will be in the hat for the third round.
This week on the Coconut Tier…
Some recent written and audio content for our Coconut Tier legends. All of this plus more is available for just £5 a month:
View From The Away End 🧐
Bristol Rovers - Talking Gas Pod
It was really important that we got our first win of the season. After 14 league games without a win it was a huge relief. We managed to build on Tuesday’s 0-0 draw and back it up with back-to-back clean sheets, the first time we’ve done that since early March.
I thought we were the better side first half and deservedly got the goal, a well worked one at that from a throw in. We could’ve easily gone in 2/3-0 up at half time, we created some very good chances.
Cambridge dominated second half but we defended brilliantly and for all your possession we didn’t let you have a shot on target.
The thing I was most pleased with was the fact we did the basics fantastically and won most of the duels, 86 in total. Something that we haven’t done for a while, so a deserved win for us in the end.
Charlton Athletic - Taken from My Only Desire’s X account
Rubbish. But never mind. This time last year this sort of terrible result against a side like Cambridge would've just been another worrying League One defeat.
Tonight it was a minor upset.
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Opposition Preview 🔮
Newport County (H) - 19th place - Saturday 30th August
Last 5 (all comps): LLLLW - Lots of people thought that Newport would struggle, and many had them as one of their relegated teams. But despite how that form line reads, there’s been a slight bit of optimism from their performances that they won’t be quite as bad as that. Those last three league losses came against MK Dons, Salford and Grimsby, and all only by one goal, the Grimsby one being a 94th minute winner. Not quite the walkover a few might’ve expected.
Last time out: Newport 0-1 U’s, 17 April 2021. Ah, Declan Drysdale’s late winner on the promotion home straight. Simpler times.
Our H2H: P35, W16, D5, L14
Manager: David Hughes. His first managerial gig, having joined from Manchester United where he was a Professional Development Phase coach. Hugely unknown entity.
One to watch: Matt Smith. A centre mid with 19 full caps for Wales, it was seen as a bit of a coup when Newport secured his services. The sort of player where everything good goes through him.
Former U’s players: Again, not that I can see.
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Under The Other Stands 🏟️
Crewe couldn’t keep up their perfect start to the season as they lost 1-0 to Gillingham, but they did hit the woodwork three times so they didn’t go down without a fight. Gills meanwhile, are still unbeaten under Ainsworth, and are now just one point off top.
Away wins for MK and Chesterfield indicate they’re probably starting to settle into an ominous sort of groove.
Down the other end, Shrewsbury found another way to lose. This time a late equaliser still wasn’t enough to come away with something and Swindon’s Billy Bodin scored a last-gasp winner. Crawley and Accrington are the other sides without a win, along with Cheltenham who have now lost all 5.
In the cup, you won’t need me to tell you about Grimsby beating Man United on penalties. That means us and them are the only League 2 representatives left in the competition.
Stats Corner 🔢
According to pre-season bookmakers odds’, our next 8 games are against teams with an average predicted position of 16.375. Or put it this way, we play a group of teams who have an average predicted strength of being in the lowest third of the league. And five out of eight are at home too, so big opportunities.
However, Harris only has two back-to-back wins as United manager, the latest of which were his first two games of this managerial spell, against Stockport and Crawley. Monk somehow did it 5 times (in all comps).
“35% of passes leading up to an opponent’s shot come from United’s left flank in our defensive third” - more of this in August’s Get Your Stats Right article.
As per Matt Ramsay’s tweet: James Brophy's first 197 Cambridge United appearances: 2 goals. James Brophy's last 17 Cambridge United appearances: 6 goals. Goal machine.
Bromley are now 9 consecutive league games without defeat.
Up in the Championship, Coventry demolished QPR 7-1, apparently racking up a total xG of… just 1.27.
In Case You Missed It 🧐
An amazing League Two goal from Tranmere - from the punt upfield to the perfect half-volley.
Speaking of good goals, this Swindon team goal is worth a watch.
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