The U's-letter: Issue 24

"Football, bloody hell"

Sep 18, 2025

It really can be such a cruel game. All the talk had been how Saturday’s trip to Grimsby was our toughest fixture yet. No one gave us too much of a chance. But it was probably the best, or at least most reassuring, performance of the season so far. And despite the cruel late blow, there does seem to be a renewed encouragement, probably based on two fronts: one, United do look capable, and were easily as good as if not better than a team whose numbers indicate they are one of the best teams in the league (so far at least). And second, despite all those numbers, either Grimsby had a huge off day or if that is the top standard for the division, we really should be challenging.

But all of this requires putting one thing right: consistency. On this very newsletter, the Jekyll & Hyde metaphor has been used and overused to within an inch of its life. But it’s true. We’ve seen the U’s put in periods of a really high level at Colchester and Grimsby, put away poor teams when needed without looking overly expansive against Cheltenham and Newport, and then disappoint against Harrogate, Bristol Rovers and Oldham. Over the next four games, there are huge opportunities for points - we don’t need to be perfect, we just need to start getting it right more times than we do wrong, and we’ll see us climb the table.

Your usual reminder here to sign up to the Coconut Tier. Upcoming on there is a special episode with Fulham fan and Football Ramble host Marcus Speller for a fun preview of the upcoming cup game, and the usual written match previews before every league game.

What’s New? 📰

Romsey Mill is United’s charity partner of the season. We’ll be getting someone on the pod soon to hear a bit more about the work they do and how you can help.
Young U’s George Hoddle and JJ Briggs have gone out on loan, to Bedford Town and Downham Town respectively.
Our allocation at Fulham has been increased to 6000. Still tickets left but over 5000 gone now.
Ex-U’s man Jevani Brown is on the move and has landed at Hemel Hempstead.

At The Match ✍️

Grimsby 1-1 U’s: Oh What Could Have Been - By Jules Roberts

At around 4:53pm, United were on for a perfect away day. A 1-0 win away at one of the league’s best-performing sides so far. A hard place to go at the best of times, this season more than any, and with a clean sheet to boot. And better than that, it was deserved. This wasn’t smash-and-grab, there was plenty in United’s performance that warranted the three points. It was, arguably the first full 90 minute performance we’ve seen this season.
And then, at around 4:55pm, football had been it’s usual cruel, cruel self. Kylian Kouassi, who had played so well after coming on for the injured Appéré, took a loose touch in the box, panicked when it landed at the feet of Grimsby’s centre-half, and swiped at his legs. The frustration and brutal nature of it only increases when you realise the centre-back in question had been travelling away from the danger zone and towards the byline. It was the challenge of a young, naive striker panicking in the last throws of the game.
Instead of focussing on that split second of madness, I’m preferring to remember all the things the U’s did well on Saturday afternoon. The three attacking midfielders of Kaikai, Brophy and Mayor provided a constant threat. Mayor in particular put in one of the most deserved man of the match displays I’ve seen in a long time, and the finish for his goal was excellent. As mentioned, Kouassi was excellent off the bench. Defensively, for so much of the game we were solid and organised, restricting Grimsby to barely any chances: 1.15 of their 1.49 xG was the penalty and the rebound. Much to Grimsby’s frustration, we also showed we’re versed in the dark arts of the game - and a few times, probably ended up on the right side of refereeing decisions, which got progressively worse as the game went on for both sides.
Overall, you would have taken a point before the game, but to have all three snatched away from you in the last minute will never not sting. The challenge now is to keep this performance level up, because we will easily swat aside weaker teams in this division if we do.

View From The Away End 🧐

Grimsby Town - By Chris Mills from View From The Findus

Prior to the first half of the Man Utd cup game, Grimsby’s impressive early season form had remained quietly under the radar. But alas, we went and played a Premier League club off the pitch live on national TV and blew our cover. That has meant League Two teams have started to wise up quickly to our attacking style of play and the last visitors to Blundell Park, Bristol Rovers, effectively parked the bus. Therefore should we have expected anything other from a Cambridge side struggling for form and managed by the pragmatic Neil Harris?

That said, I was actually impressed with Cambridge in the first half at least. Not only did you shut down our attacking threats at source and press us high, you also moved the ball with purpose and had us on the back foot for large periods. In comparison, we were well short of the high standards previously set – not moving the ball with any speed or intensity, first touches and passes were languid, players reluctant to be brave in possession, passing sideways and back instead of progressing through the thirds. Even our defending for the goal was questionable – doing the hard part by getting 7 men back in the box but not actually marking or closing down the 1 Cambridge attacker the ball fell to.

I felt another inept refereeing display ruined the second half and the stop/start nature made it impossible for either side to build any momentum. We counted 40 fouls that were awarded (one every 2.5 minutes) and I dare say half of those could have been let go to allow the game to flow more. And then he got the actual big calls wrong – Gibbons only being given a yellow for his tussle with Kabia seemed illogical and the late penalty was very soft, the challenge albeit clumsy and needless on your players part.

Even then we did our best to lose the game by missing the pen but had our blushes spared with Amaluzor smashing home the re-bound – it was nearly the perfect away performance by Cambridge and having been on the receiving end of something similar last season (Port Vale scoring an equaliser against us at their place with the last kick of the game when we thought we’d done enough for a crucial win) I had sympathy for the travelling U’s fans.

On that performance you should be fine this season – most likely mid table, pushing towards the play-offs if you can get on a run of results at any stage. It doesn’t take much at this level to be in and around the play-offs as we found last season, managing to stay up there for months with a minus goal difference!

As for us – maybe returning under the radar for a while with some average and humbling performances will be a blessing and stop us all getting too carried away. It is only September, after all.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Cambridge; we’re similar sized clubs, we’ve had similar trajectories in recent decades and some good battles in non-league and we both have proper grounds. And floodlights! Here’s hoping the good times are just around the corner again for both of us.

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Opposition Preview 🔮

Fleetwood Town (H) - 11th place - Saturday 20th September

Last 5 (all comps): DLDWD - A mix of results, but in all comps it’s just one win in five, which is true if you extend it to just the league too.
Last time out: U’s 2-1 Fleetwood, 13 January 2024. Lyle Taylor off the bench in Harris’ first spell in League One. Heady days. The late winner scored by Sullay Kaikai.
Our H2H: P8, W5, D2, L1. This is Football League only, according to 11v11. Surprising to see we’ve only lost once to these in the league, a Tuesday night up in Lancashire when Smith missed an open goal to level it, too.
Manager: Pete Wild. A steady climb up the leagues, he’s a young manager who is very admired by people in the game.
One to watch: Will Davies. The number 9 was signed from Sutton this summer after a 20 goal season and hit the ground running, scoring 3 in his first two. But has been goalless since.
Former U’s players: Not that I can see.

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Under The Other Stands 🏟️

Salford have climbed up to third after dispatching Shrews away from home, who still sit 23rd and look in a heap of trouble.
Accrington were the last side to get their first win of the season, beating Colchester 1-0. Huge sigh of relief for them.
Oldham backed up their own first win of the season at the Abbey last week by beating Bromley 1-0, and according to FotMob they’re still the league’s 3rd highest-rated side.
Crewe missed not one but two penalties when they were drawing 1-1 at home to Barnet, and then conspired to lose the game. Their red hot start has been somewhat tempered in the past few weeks.
Gills player and Ainsworth stalwart Garath McCleary has received a retrospective two-game ban for simulation after allegedly purposefully deceiving the referee to win a penalty that saved a point for this side away at Bromley. It feels like this sets a potentially unhealthy precedent, going forward.

Stats Corner 🔢

Speaking of Gillingham, their unbeaten run is now up to 20 league games. 17 of those are under Gareth Ainsworth, with their fourth 1-0 win of this season on Saturday against Notts County.
Swindon have scored 17 goals, making them the top scoring team in the whole EFL. Another three goals for them on Saturday, beating Harrogate 3-1.
Speaking of Swindon, in the past four seasons, sides in the top 3 after 8 games have been promoted 4/12 times. So if you’re Swindon, Gillingham, or Salford, currently there’s a 25% chance that you’re getting promoted based on historical date. Lots can change still.