It feels like a lot has happened since we last published a U’s-letter. A comeback home win, a valiant cup defeat, and one of the most boring games of football humanity has ever had the displeasure to witness. A far too busy week or two has meant we had to delay publishing last week, but despite the tardiness this week we catch you up on all those games, including a view from both the oppositions, a round up around the grounds, and a look ahead to our next game.
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What’s New? 📰
Feels like ancient history now but Harris has been fined £750 by the FA for “misconduct” following the game at Grimsby. The rumours are he “threw a punch”, but they seem to be nothing more than rumours.
Speaking of misconduct, the club has been fined £5000 for a “mass confrontation” against Birmingham on the final day of last season. I have to say, it might be my bad memory or the fact that by that point I was struggling to muster even an ounce of caring, but I don’t recall it very well at all.
At The Match ✍️
Tranmere 0-0 U’s: A Waste of Everyone’s Time
Besides the fact that this game was instantly forgettable for everyone, when I sat down here to pen a few words down, there was literally no moment of match action I can recall of being particularly significant or worth reporting on.
5 minutes into the game, everyone could see it was heading for a 0-0. And that’s not hindsight talking: Tom of UTAS pod fame said it, and multiple group chats called it too. The talking point becomes, are we justified in our frustration for that to be the case? Are we asking too much of Harris to set up in a positive way to go and win these games against bottom half sides away from home?
Or is a clean sheet and point away from home always a good thing? I know what Harris thinks, and I don’t think we’ll see him change his set up away from home any time soon. You can make your own mind up, but I know what the away end thought, and if we don’t comfortably beat Crawley at home this weekend then this approach, performance and result will be thrown into even more question.
Fulham 1-0 U’s: What A Night - By Owen Kiernan
What a night, eh? It’s not often you can be proud in defeat, and as Cambridge United fans we’ve seen more than our fair share of abject losses over the past few seasons to know all about it. But last night was different - we went toe to toe with a Premier League side featuring hundreds of millions of pounds worth of talent, and for most of the game, matched them.
Okay, it wasn’t the win over Newcastle, but it was also a far better overall performance than the 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford over a decade ago. A similar number of U’s fans travelled to that one, but we were never really in that match were we?
Anyway, U’s fans - almost 6,000 of them made the journey down to West London, and the pubs were a sight to behold, black and amber as far as the eye could see. New badges, old badges, that one we used in the 90’s for a bit, Brooks, Fujitsu, Howlett, stripes, quarters and just plain old amber it felt like every U’s fan was in town and ready to make some noise. And we got the brief. From minute one to ninety-five we sang, we cheered and we clapped our boys, never letting up, never letting Fulhams supporters be heard over the Amber Army. The Premier League rules only require Fulham to give 2,500 away tickets, so their fans must have been astounded that Cambridge United bought over twice what they normally see for a game, even if only 11,000 of them turned up for what they thought was probably a routine win.
Read in full at The Antler:
U’s 2-1 Fleetwood: Four Four F*cking Two - By Jules Roberts
When Jordan Davies leisurely picked up Dom Ball’s loose pass, strode forward into the U’s half, and confidently finished into the bottom corner from the edge of the box to give Fleetwood the lead, there was a feeling of deja vu. Another home game which we’d dominated in the early stages, not made it count, and fell asleep in the early moments of the second half to let the opposition back into it.
But just a moment before Davies put Fleetwood 1-0 up, Lavery had come on in what was a fairly attacking substitution, going two up top when the game was poised at 0-0. He had barely had a touch before we conceded, but the story of this game is what happens from the restart at one down onwards.
Playing with Kouassi and Lavery up top gave us a whole new dimension to our attacking play, last seen when… Appere and Kouassi did the same thing for a small amount of the second half against Newport a few weeks ago. They were a constant threat, and we racked up a series of corners through finding ways to consistently get into their final third. And it was through two of these that we ended up turning the game around; first through Adam Mayor’s deflected shot from the edge of the box, and second through Lavery’s poacher instincts, reacting fast to poke the ball home and celebrate with all the joy and relief of a man who has been probably even more frustrated than us at his persistent injury issues.
In the end those two moments were enough. A good win against a decent enough side, and one full of plenty of character. The question becomes, well couldn’t we start games like this?
View From The Away End 🧐
Tranmere Rovers - By This Is Tranmere
It was a rather drab affair between two teams who seemed keen not to lose rather than grab the match by the scruff of the neck and go and win it. It was scrappy and I don’t think we saw the best of either team - I’d like to think not anyway! Cambridge were rugged and competitive as they always are but there was no real quality in the 90 minutes.
Fleetwood Town - By Knappers
I thought it was a tough game for Fleetwood, and that’s what it turned out to be. Cambridge got in the faces of FTFC, got the ball out and started to really test us, they looked energetic and fired up and had real moments of quality, had the better chances and ultimately made their 5 minute spell count for more. Adam Mayor again proving what a good signing he was. In general I thought Cambridge looked better set up, better drilled and better in different elements of the game...
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Opposition Preview 🔮
Crawley Town (H) - 11th place - Saturday 20th September
Last 5 (all comps): LLWWD - A few poor results but before that it looked like they’d turned the corner and put their poor start behind them.
Last time out: Crawley 0-2 U’s, 1st March 2025. Harris’ second game in this second spell, and his second win. A brief glimmer is all it turned out to be.
Our H2H: P14, W8, D0, L6. Never drawn a game, apparently!
Manager: Scott Lindsey. Back for his second spell after leading them to an unlikely promotion first time around.
One to watch: Kaheim Dixon. On loan from Charlton, if the Jamaica international is fit he is apparently a complete nightmare for a full back.
Former U’s players: Lofty! Who likely can’t play, apparently. Jack Roles too, but he’s out on loan at Gateshead.
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Under The Other Stands 🏟️
Gills finally lost a football match under Gareth Ainsworth, losing 1-0 at home to Harrogate. Maybe that draw at home will prove to be not as bad as it felt? Having taken points against us and Gills, Harrogate also only lost at Grimsby in the very last minutes and gave a good show of themselves at Swindon. Could prove to be a decent side despite their size.
Speaking of teams who have frustrated us at the Abbey, Oldham somehow didn’t beat Barnet. Given their underlying data and performance levels, that’s another result that might not end up looking quite as bad as it felt on the day.
Two reds for Cheltenham, and seven goals conceded at Grimsby. They’ve just announced Steve Cotterill as their new manager, a club legend who seems to have instantly reinvigorated the toxic environment that was building there. You’d think he should have enough to keep them up.
Stats Corner 🔢
Grimsby’s 7-1 win was big, but it wasn’t League 2’s record: that was Stockport 8-0 Sutton.
So far this season, just 23.1% of opponent possessions that enter our defensive third go on to enter our box. For more of that sort of excellent insight, the latest Get Your Stats Right is where you need to be:
Get Your Stats Right: September 2025
The second stats round-up of the season has landed. This month Ben takes an overall view at how United are playing, looking both at performance and style to see if the numbers can help us judge how we’ve started alongside the eye test.
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