The U's-letter: Issue #7

Time up for Monk? All the news from a double gameweek at the Abbey

It feels like we will look back on this week as the one where it all changed for Garry Monk at Cambridge United. Possibly, and probably, for good. Going into the Lincoln game last week, the narrative on Monk was up in the air. Obviously we were winless, but those brief moments of quality we’d seen were still fresh in the memory. It still felt like there was something there. Injuries had worked quite severely against Monk (and continue to this week), and with the prospect of two home games it wasn’t farfetched to think two positive results could change his fortunes.

As mentioned in UTAS Chats pre-game, the Lincoln match especially had the potential to really move the needle on the narrative around him: win, and it would finally back up some of the decent performances we’ve seen. Draw, and it would buy him a disproportionately long period of time as it would show very early signs he might be able to turn things around. But a loss would tip fans on the fence into the Monk Out side. A heavy loss might even have seen him go that evening.

As it was, the 2-0 loss did just what was expected and turn the tide of sentiment against him. Rotherham on Tuesday felt like a last chance at redemption, and that painful 92nd minute goal to gift them the win really felt like a final straw. The sentiment in the terraces is against him, but clearly as we sit here on the Thursday and there has been no club statement yet, the boardroom’s isn’t. There was some confusion as it looked like Monk was sent off after full time of the Rotherham game so presumably he won’t be in the dugout this weekend himself regardless, but his time at United goes on. With an international break coming up, another defeat and it’ll be hard to imagine it going on much longer.

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📰 News From The U’s 📰

• The Birmingham City fixture next Saturday has been postponed for international weekend.

• It was confirmed that Dan Barton suffered a medial knee ligament injury against Lincoln and will miss at least 8-10 weeks. When your luck’s out, your luck’s out.

• Connor O’Riordan has been selected for Ireland’s Under 21 squad to face Italy and Norway.

✍️ At The Match ✍️

U’s 0-2 Lincoln City

Written by Julian Roberts

This was, without doubt, the worst U’s performance we’ve seen under Monk. Despite injuries decimating the squad, despite a very decent Lincoln start who have started about as well as they finished last year, and despite even the underlying questions of recruitment, this one was really abject. And a lot of that blame will have to lie at Monk’s door.

The now traditional game of line-up lottery kicked off proceedings, with another swathe of unpredictable changes as Monk gropes in the dark for something that might finally work. We set up in a 3-4-1-2 of sorts, with Morrison recalled to play at the heart of a back three alongside Okedina and Andrew. James Brophy was pushed slightly further forward to play in the number 10 role behind Dan and Bran.

Quite predictably, we went 1-0 down to an early (ish) goal. And it was maybe the weakest one we’ve conceded this season. The first person at fault was Brophy for lingering on the ball when it was cleared to the edge of his own box; his dallying and dithering, even turning around to face his own goal, allowed Lincoln to get back into shape and put pressure on any of his out balls. The one he found was to Longelo, which was instantly contested by his opposing number at right back. But Longelo was far, far, far too soft in the tackle. And then it was incredibly easy for their man to just stroll into the box and cut it back for an unmarked player to tuck home. It was eerily reminiscent of Gregory’s first goal at Mansfield a few weeks ago. Worringly so.

The second came in the second half, and there’ll be some heated debates about which one is worse. If the first was weak defending, this was totally transparent. One diagonal long ball from the half way line over Okedina’s head who was easily moved to one side by the striker, who takes a touch and scores. 2-0, a goal in each half, as easy as you like for Lincoln - it was such a stroll for them at times it felt a bit like a pre-season match even.

What was probably the most worrying about this game was the complete lack of attacking intent and ability across the team. The gaps between the five nominally playing in defence and the five playing in midfield/attack was a chasm. They looked poorly organised with no plan at all once we had possession. Monk said as much in the post-match interview, but the fact we’re going backwards performance-wise is as damning as anything else, and for plenty it will have convinced them that Monk is not the right man to take us forward.

U’s 0-1 Rotherham United

Written by Owen Kiernan. Subscribe to The Antler to read the report in full and receive regular match reports in your inbox.

It never bloody rains but it pours, eh? It rained all day Tuesday, meaning the game was in doubt, and by 10:00pm I think everyone at the club wished it had been called off.

You saw the result, you saw the time of the goal, the game itself was unremarkable. A poor contest between two poor sides. My frustration is with the fact that with a few minutes to go, the players and management seemed happy with a draw, another point on the board. I’ll tell you this, Garry Monk - you won’t stay up with draws. We’re in the shit, miles from safety and we need WINS. It’s unlikely we’ll be out of the relegation zone before Christmas at this rate, I’d be surprised if we left it all season.

It’s looking likely that Monk is going to pay for this atrocious start to the season with his job. I wanted to like Monk, I wanted it to work for him. A manager who’d managed at the highest level, with some success. It didn’t matter that he’d been out of the game for four years - Cambridge United was to be his redemption. But then Little Old Cambridge struck again. Seriously, that’s like a curse that hangs over this club. Little Old Cambridge that couldn’t tempt any of their first choice targets to join, despite the new training ground. Little Old Cambridge that kept the spine of a shite team from last year, Brophy, Digby, Morrison, Kaikai, Kachunga, Stevens, Okedina. None of them looked in any way decent last year, the thought that Garry Monk could turn them into decent players was a job too far. Little Old Cambridge that haven’t broken their transfer record since 1993. Little Old Cambridge that are top of the sustainability tables, but bottom of the football ones.

It’s impressive that we rank so highly in all that stuff, but I can tell you now that Wycombe, Rotherham or Birmingham don’t give a shit about it. Man City definitely don’t. We’re looking at rebranding our badge to just feature the words ‘Cambridge United’ - perhaps they should look at the letters they’re taking off it: F.C - Football Club. That’s what we are, that’s what we should be focussing on. Crowds are up but for how long? The ground was noticeably empty last night. If you want to attract fans you do so by winning football matches. This might make me sound like an old miser, and I’m not. I know we’re a small club, I know we need to grow significantly to be successful, but we also need to be a club that competes at the highest possible level. That level should not be League Two.

Positives from last night? I didn’t see anyone get a parking ticket along Barnwell Road. Smith started to show the quality that is the reason we’re paying him three grand a week or more. Liam Bennett has hopefully added another twenty quid to his January transfer value. We stopped pissing about with it at the back. That’s about it really.

I’m still angry, and you probably are too. Paul Barry has some big decisions to make. I hope he gets them right.

🧐 View From The Away End 🧐

Lincoln City

From The Stacey West

Overall, I thought it turned out to be a comfortable performance for Lincoln on Saturday. The early injury to Ben House would’ve been a real problem last season, but the squad depth we’ve managed to amass paid dividends with Freddie Draper coming in to deputise and ultimately open the scoring.

I could see the shoots of what Cambridge want to do, and for 15 minutes or so after half time a few nerves started to jangle a little bit. However, once the second went in there was only going to be one team taking anything from the game. I’ve seen some comments suggesting we didn’t get out of second gear, but my view is that we just knew how to respond and break at the right times.

I think once it clicks for Cambridge, you’ll be able to start looking up, there were some moments with some genuinely nice football, I just hope for the fans’ sake that it doesn’t come too late in the season for the situation to resolve itself!

Rotherham United

From New York Talk

Tuesday night’s win was a big one for us, even non-Rotherham fans knew the stats – 40 games and 693 days since our last away win. If anyone watched the first 91 minutes of the game, you would not be able to tell which was the Championship team last season and which was winless this season. A game that lacked quality was settled by a goal which lacked quality, but for me the result is king and to finally get that 40 game monkey off our back is huge.

If it wasn’t for a double Cameron Dawson save or if Dan Nlundulu had a little more composure, then it could have been a very different night. Cambridge were the team trying to make the game move, pushing forward with more intent than Rotherham United were able to do and led to most of us fans thinking it was going to be one of those away days again. From this one game it looks like Cambridge have heart and put the effort in, but the lack of quality in the final third will likely end up being the deciding factor in the season.

FANCY BEATING US AT EFL FANTASY? LINK BELOW 👇

🔢 Stats Corner 🔢

• With 1 point from 8 games and tracking for 5.75 points this season, this is officially the U’s worst ever start. For Monk, it’s 2 wins in 21 and 0.52 PPG.

• This season, we’re top of the failed to score table, we’ve led games for a total of 0 minutes, and 75% of home games have gone by without a goal.

• We also dropped to 22nd in the xG table, 23rd in the xGA table and 23rd in the xGD table last night. We now need 1.29 PPG to reach 50 points. You'd have finished 14th with that PPG last season, equal form that resulted in our best league finish in 30 years a few seasons back.

• We shouldn’t feel surprised by Tuesday night’s result: Steve Evans absolutely loves playing us.

🔮 Opposition Preview 🔮

Exeter City (A)

• Last 5 (all comps): WDWWL - Exeter were predicted to be one of those teams that could fall into a relegation scrap, but they’re sitting pretty in 10th with a really solid start.

• Last time out: Exeter 0-0 U’s, 20th January 2024. In the short-lived Neil Harris era, this was a solid point on a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon in Devon as we got a certain Lyle Taylor up to full match fitness.

• Our H2H: P65, W31, L21, D13. We play this lot all the time it feels like. According to Transfermarkt, in the last 10 years we’ve only won at St James’ Park once, and in fact only scored there twice. Between 17/18 and 22/23, we played them six times, and lost 1-0 three times and 2-0 three times.

• Manager: Gary Caldwell. A name most will remember from his Premier League playing days with Wigan, Caldwell hadn’t managed for three years before replacing Matt Taylor at Exeter. It was a tough appointment following Taylor’s success, but Caldwell has always been steady enough despite one awful run of form around Christmas last year, which they came out the other side of in good shape.

• One to watch: Joe Whitworth. Seems strange to highlight a keeper, but Exeter have conceded just six goals, the second least amount of goals in the division.

• Former U’s players: None that I can see.

🏟️ Under The Other Stands 🏟️

• I would say that Rotherham finally won away from home for the first time since November 2022, but you knew that already.

• Stevenage beat Wrexham 1-0 and Bristol Rovers beat Charlton 3-2: two results that feel like the sort of thing that will keep both those sides away from the drop zone despite pre-season fears.

• Posh lost 3-0 at Wigan, a long way to go on a Tuesday night. Always lovely to see, even though we’re really not in a position to laugh at anyone else right now.

• In good news, Burton are still winless, and them, Shrewsbury and Crawley all lost - feels like a bottom four is forming…

💻 On The Socials 💻

A simply incredible string of saves from the QPR keeper Paul Nardi.

📚 Read And Listen 🎧

• Owen had a chat to United legend Tom Youngs for the website, talking Dave Kitson, living with MS and being a Championship manager wonderkid:

🕺 What’s Spinning? 🕺

This isn’t new at all, but it was in my head on Tuesday night driving back from the game, and after the week we’ve had it nothing feels more apt:

Thanks for reading this week’s U’s-letter. Send us through any suggestions to include in next week’s issue, or general feedback to hello@undertheabbeystand.com