The U's-letter: Issue 29

Your regular wrap-up of everything happening at United

Nov 13, 2025

Like many games this season, the post-mortem from Saturday’s draw at Salford goes one of two ways depending on your outlook. Either, in isolation, it’s an excellent point away to third in the league, who had scored in all but one home game going into Saturday. United went one better than that, restricting Salford to 0 shots on target – undoubtedly impressive.

Or there’s the angle that that is now the fourth away game in a row without scoring in.

The answer, of course, is somewhere in the middle – both things can be true at once, it can be a good point but the general away form is also still not fixed. Looking ahead to league away games of Barrow, MK Dons, Gillingham, Chesterfield (and Stockport in the cup), that Barrow game looks absolutely crucial. A 0-0 draw there will read very differently, that’s for sure.

As usual, the Preview Show looks ahead to the Barnet game this weekend and this week discusses the all-important Vertu Round of 32 draw. Thanks for reading and listening!

What’s New? 📰

The aforementioned Vertu draw has us facing… Bristol Rovers away. On the Tuesday before Stockport in the cup. As uninviting as anything.
Luke Chadwick will be at the Abbey signing his new book this Saturday. If you want to hear our interview with him from a few years ago, here it is…

At The Match ✍️

Salford 0-0 U’s: Spoils shared

It’s tempting to start this mini-match report with the same exaggerated Shakespearean language that clearly inspired the website writer for Newport (link below if you haven’t seen it). But, in truth, no amount of dressing up can hide the fact this was an easily forgettable affair – a scoreline and result that was probably completely deserved for both sides.
To everyone’s surprise, Harris matched Salford’s formation and lined up with a very un-Harris three at the back (more like five at the back, in reality). Jobe, Watts and Morro lined up together – as many on the pod have been calling out to try for some time.
The first half was a sparring contest. Kaikai and Brophy were both heavily involved in trying to create, Kouassi was his usual bustling self, holding the ball up excellently. Both sides lacked cutting edge, best exemplified when Salford’s N’Mai found himself one-on-one with Eastwood – having been slipped through by his teammate progressing through a totally transparent central midfield area – but missed. His low shot flew past the post, and the best chance of the afternoon went begging.
In the second half, it was actually United who came closest. Pelly first with a beautifully controlled volley which could only find the outside of the post, and Brophy’s left-footed curling effort just creeping past the outside of the far post.
The good fortune to sneak either chance into the net and grab all three points didn’t arrive, and neither team can claim too heavily that they deserved it.

View From The Away End 🧐

Salford City - By One Up Front Blog

My view on Saturday’s game is that it was less of a football contest and more of a chess match. I think Neil Harris set his team up really well to prevent Salford from being able to launch counter attacks, and this stopped Karl Robinson’s men from playing their natural game. Normally our wing backs, Kadeem Harris and Haji Mnoga are dominant forces during league games, but I think their danger was snuffed out well before it ever became a scoring threat.
The matchup I was looking forward to seeing in the lead up to kick off was Kylian Kouassi against our middle centre back, Adebola Oluwo. I’d say Ade got the best of these exchanges, as later in the game Kylian tried to line up against our shorter wide centre halves instead.
Overall, my takeaway from the game is that we coped well against a very well organised team, and I think we deserve some credit for our defensive solidity. As our head coach said himself post game, we lacked the “magic” in this game that we usually expect, but our level of fight and intensity was there for all to see.

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Opposition Preview 🔮

Barnet (H) - 11th place - Saturday 15th November (3pm kick off)

Last 5 (all comps): DLDWL - A few recent hiccups in the league but by all accounts they’re playing consistently well.
Last time out: Barnet 3-2 U’s, 21st October 2025. Only a few weeks ago in the Vertu, with Assombalonga scoring and ex-U’s player Osadebe scoring the winner.
Our H2H: P21, W8, D4, L9. A very shared record over the years.
Manager: Dean Brennan. Known for his charismatic outburts/interviews, and much-loved at Barnet after completing a 102-point season last year.
One to watch: Callum Stead. Might have only scored a couple so far this year, but he racked up 20 goals last year.
Former U’s players: Emmanuel Osadebe.

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Under The Other Stands 🏟️

Big results for Swindon, who scored a last minute winner to beat Tranmere, and Walsall, who won handily at bottom-of-the-league Newport. They are the top two and profited from plenty of teams dropping points below them.
Notts County have continued their sneakily good start to the season and sit third now, beating Cheltenham 2-1 on Monday night. They’ve really crept up on everyone but look in fine shape.
Down the other end, the bottom four all lost. Harrogate are in a spot of bother at the moment, with so many players out injured on their already stretched budget, the rumours are they’ll only have one or two senior players on the bench on Saturday as they visit… Notts County.

Stats Corner 🔢

Wednesday marked 10 years since we appointed Shaun Derry. At least we’re not still playing boring, mid-table defensive football in League Two, eh? Oh, wait…
On Saturday, Zech Medley was sent off after 9 minutes and 40 seconds for Fleetwood, for two yellows! It’s the joint-earliest second yellow in the EFL.