The U's-letter: Issue 32
Your new year's wrap-up of United's festive period
Well, that’s it, another festive period over. Christmas has been and gone. You can wave goodbye to dry turkey sandwiches, petty family disputes and an incessant football calendar for another year. As Andy Williams famously sang, it is the most wonderful time of the year, and this year it was extra wonderful for U’s fans thanks to a near-perfect Christmas period that has raised the bullishness going into 2026 to new highs.
It’s been a long time since we last came to you with a U’s-letter, a regular feature where we round up the last fortnight of the world of Cambridge United, and get a reflection on the games through both our own match reports (revamped for 2026, more on that below) and the view from the opposition (a bumper three in this edition!).
If you’re into that sort of thing, and want to receive it regularly in your inbox, subscribe below. If you want to go a step further and become a Coconut Tier member, you’ll get extra pods, a written preview and report of every league game, and weekly feature articles, including an upcoming interview with Liam Hughes.
What’s New? 📰
A new contract for Kell Watts until summer 2027, which is great news. Just a shame it’s not a thigh-ve year deal.
The excellent Jonathan Wilson is next up in the Footnotes series talks in partnership with the University. Book your place here.
Latest pod is here to listen to, previewing Saturday’s late kick-off (5:45pm) against Birmingham:
At The Match ✍️
We’re delighted to have U’s writer Matt Ramsay on board providing match reports for every home game. We’ll now be posting match reports for Coconut Tier members after every game, on the Monday (or Wednesday for midweek games) following the match, so make sure you’re signed up to receive them in your inbox.
U’s 2-0 Walsall: 1st January 2026
This is really coming together, isn’t it?
Remember in the Lockdown Legends season, the last time Walsall played at the Abbey Stadium. 90+4, a drab goalless draw was turned into a key victory by a Paul Mullin belter. Or Port Vale in the same season when Liam O’Neil scored the goal of the season to secure another three points.
Grimsby away on a Tuesday night in 2013, Adam Cunnington’s bundled winner and Chris Maxwell’s penalty save.
You knew at the time they were results that would be looked back on as critical in the final reckoning. Not in retrospect, but the moment the goal went in or the final whistle went – this is a season where something is happening and promotion is achievable.
New Year’s Day 2026 has that feel. Walsall, fresh from their first defeat in a while, are a team clearly aspiring to go up from League Two, and correct any mistakes their collapse last season might have taught them. Another side in Cambridge United’s tough recent fixture list after Milton Keynes and Chesterfield (twice) that the U’s have faced, taken points from and not been outplayed by.
Read in full:
United 2-0 Walsall: 1st January 2026
We’re delighted to have friend of the pod Matt Ramsay contributing match reports for the UTAS website from his vantage point in the press box. There are no finer U’s writers than Matt, so if you haven’t subscribed already, you know what to do if you want to enjoy even more United coverage…
View From The Away End 🧐
A festive round-up from the eyes of opposition fans…
Gillingham - The ME7 Podcast
It’s another draw for The Gills as we stretched our winless run at home to 8 having come back to rescue the point. Neil Harris returned to the club for the first time since his sacking in October 2023 and Cambridge were everything we would have expected of a Harris side. Well organised, hard to break down, but couldn’t manage to keep the same intensity as Gills came out stronger in the second half.
Cambridge had the better of the match in the first half and possibly could have had a penalty, but a frantic couple of minutes in the second resulted in a Max Clark equaliser, after Jake Eastwood had saved Robbie McKenzie’s poor spot kick. Cambridge threatened down the wings with Brophy and Kaikai, and lost their way a little bit when they were replaced, but ultimately the home side couldn’t do enough to capitalise. It was another frustrating day at Priestfield for Gills who yet again don’t seem to be able to stay consistent enough across 90 minutes, while for The U’s it’s another point as they look towards the top 7.
Probably a fair result on reflection, and I would expect Harris to have his side still battling for those playoff places come April 2026.
Chesterfield - By Dave the Chesterfield Fan
A frustrating night for Chesterfield fans last night. After what many supporters called the most complete performance of the season against Notts County a few days ago we followed it up with a really flat performance.
We should have probably been a goal up before Cambridge scored as Grimes headed over when under the crossbar and Bonis hit the woodwork. We then gave away a really sloppy goal on the counter attack with 4 or 5 opportunities to stop it before it happened.
In the second half we huffed and puffed but I was never confident of getting the equaliser as they all just looked a bit off it. I thought a draw would have been a fair result but after our smash and grab in the first fixture I guess things level out.
We are really missing our creative wingers in Dobra and Markanday and picked up a couple of defensive injuries last night too so roll on January.
I hope that’s the last we see of Cambridge this season (no offence) as I really wouldn’t want to face your defensive platoon in the playoffs!
Walsall - By The Yellow Ribbon Pod
Well, as a Walsall fan I was left very disappointed by our performance on New Years Day. We very rarely threatened to score, and when the opportunities did present themselves we simply did not do enough to take them.
It is frustrating as errors were the reason behind conceding the goals we did. The goal at the end of the first half was a very poor error (just thump it clear Rico). I felt the first half was quite even and was very much a 0-0 game.
That gave United the impetus to push for the second while we were still regrouping. Early in the 2nd half.
This sounds like a criticism, but it is meant as a compliment to you as a team. You did the basics well. Your defence was solid, you passed the ball well and you moved it much better than we did in the final third.
Like I said, that is not meant to simplify your style. On the day, if we had done more of the basics right then maybe we would be talking about a draw rather than a 2-0 defeat.
Based off the game against us, I think you will be up in the top 7 come the business end of the season. There are a lot of teams in the mix and I have no doubt the picture will change every couple of games, but I think the team playing the way they did will make them tough to beat, especially at home.
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Opposition Preview 🔮
Birmingham City (H) - FA Cup 3rd Round - Saturday 10th January (5:45pm kick off)
Last 5 (all comps): WLDDL - Sitting in 14th in the Championship, they’ve maybe had a slightly more disappointing season than the lofty heights they had set themselves after walking League One.
Last time out: U’s 1-2 Blues, 3rd May 2025. Last game of the season before we both changed divisions for this campaign.
Our H2H: P14, W5, D2, L7. Last win coming thanks to a 1-0 win in the League Cup in the lockdown year.
Manager: Chris Davies. Achieved what was expected of him in his debut season, now looking to kick on in the Champ.
One to watch: Jay Stansfield. We know all about him, he’s their top scorer and plays basically every minute.
Former U’s players: Nope.
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Under The Other Stands 🏟️
Bromley continue the lead the way at the top of the league, they’re having a sensational season. Elite bagsman Michael Cheek continues to lead the scoring charts too (level with Swindon’s Drinan), adding a hat-trick at Crawley to his tally over the festive period.
Walsall and Notts County were the two teams at the top end to have a poor Christmas: Walsall somehow remain 3rd, but there’s alarm bells ringing there that history is repeating itself from last year, and Notts were the ones to drop out of the play-offs with a 1-0 home defeat to Accrington Stanley a real shock result.
Speaking of Accy, their resurgence has been really impressive, and they overtook Gillingham and Oldham to land 14th, far away from the relegation battle they were predicted to be in. Stanley are a club that just continues to defy the odds every season.
At the bottom, just two points separate Crawley in 21st with Harrogate propping up the league in 24th. Bristol Rovers under new manager Steve Evans got their first win against fellow strugglers Shrewsbury and surely have enough quality in the squad and staff to keep away from trouble. This league is so crazy you could even imagine them going on a run and challenging the play-offs.
Stats Corner 🔢
Both times Clarke was sacked from Bristol Rovers were on the 13th December; first in 2018 and recently in 2025.
9 - Accrington took 9 points from their three festive games, the only team in the league to do so. It makes our win on Friday before Christmas look more impressive.
0 - Bromley are still yet to lose at home in the league this season. They’re the only team better on their own patch than Harris’ U’s.
This won’t have escaped you, but United haven’t lost a game since Notts County away. The xG improvement since then has been significant: +0.37 average per game. Keep your eyes peeled on an article next week that will go into more detail on this potential turning point in our season.
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