U's 2-0 Bristol Rovers: Argony & Ecstasy

The Abbey was in celebratory mood on Satuday, as we marked the occasion of 1000 Football League matches at the "Wembley of the Fens" with a win over Bristol Rovers. @vinylperez rounds up his best gas based puns for our match report.

Cambridge has been home to some of the greatest, most world changing discoveries known to history. DNA, the Internet, Long-Ball football: all discovered in this fair city. But Saturday saw another major milestone in the scientific world, as Tungsten Hexaflouride (WF₆) lost its status as the densest gas known to man to Joey Barton (Us₂₀).

Everyone in football knows Barton, the Morrissey-loving, Nietzsche-quoting thug with a rap sheet a mile long. Assaulting a youth-teamer, kicking his wife, battering a bloke on a night out and doing time, he's done the lot and much more besides, which makes his continued employment by professional football clubs a bit of a surprise. Mind you, this is the team which signed Jevani Brown over the summer, so they're about as polar opposite in outlook and reputation to our U's as it's possible to get.

Barton spoke in his post-match press conference by saying United were 'bizzarely' at the top of the table, despite just seeing his gameplan completely dismantled by Mark Bonner's United. He then threatened to drop half his players, which doesn't seem like the most encouraging piece of man management, but what do I know?

The one thing Barton was right about - bizzarely or not - is that United are top of the table, and from up here on our lofty perch it's nice looking down on the rest of the table whilst it lasts. I'm not going to get too carried away, as we were briefly in a similar position at the start of last season and we all know how that panned out.

United's ascent to the top was aided in part by everyone's favourite comedy outfit Peterborough United conceding a hilarious goal to their second biggest fans Northampton Town, which we're reposting here for your viewing pleasure

Anyway, enough about them. It's United we're here to read about, and what can we say? Another 2-0 win, another clean sheet (did anyone say they're a platform to build on?) and another set of great performances from the squad. We won't lie, the first 80-odd minutes of the game were pretty unremarkable, and for a while it looked like we might have been in for a draw, Rovers defence seemingly happy to pass the ball amongst themselves, and Jack Stevens being ready to stop the few chances they did manage to conjure up.

We spoke about Stevens on the latest pod - it's fair to say some United fans weren't initially convinced by him, but although it's still early doors he looks at least equal to, if not better than Dimi Mitov. His shot stopping seems excellent, he's been in a few one-on-one situations already this season and has proved tough to beat. His distribution seems better than Mitov's, and his willingness to move the game on quickly is great to see too. The sight of Dimi collapsing over the ball on 50 minutes was pretty frustrating to watch at times, but Stevens seems much keener to get the ball up the other end. There's definitely still a couple of question marks over his communication, but that will only improve as he gets to know the players in front of him.

If Stevens was leading from the back (with plenty of assistance from the Bennett's and Morro) it was George Thomas who was pulling all the strings in the middle of the park. We'll probably talk about Thomas a lot more over the course of the season as he's been excellent so far already this season, and is shaping up to be an important player for us. There's already mutterings in the stands and online comparing him to Wes Hoolahan, and whilst they're different types of players we can absolutely see why fans would think that. Everything seems to go through GT, and his eye for a pass was best exemplified by his inch-perfect ball to Fejiri Okenabirhie in the lead up to our second goal.

Speaking of Fejiri, he came on and helped change the game. His goal was well taken, neatly controlled and finished brilliantly, and his lack of selfishness in teeing up Kaikai for the second needs applauding too - the sponsors gave him Man of the Match and if he'd have played for more than 25 minutes he'd probably be ours too.

So wrapping up, things are looking good at the Abbey at the moment. Despite the massive changes over the summer the team seem to be gelling well, in Liam & Ryan Bennett we have two of the best defenders in the entire League, and in George Thomas one of the best midfielders. We've options in attack, and although another body would be nice it looks like Bonner is going to be dipping into the loan market for a midfielder which is needed to provide a bit of cover for injuries.

We're not going to stay top for the rest of the season, and in all honesty we probably won't finish the season anywhere near it, but maybe, just maybe, Mark Bonner can put together another surprise package and we do... if we carry on playing like we've been playing, and we're lucky with injuries, then who knows? I know we're only four games in, but from what we've seen we don't look any worse than the teams we've played so far, at least two of which were tipped to finish up around the playoffs.

Bring on the next 1000 Football League games at the Abbey!

Man of the Match: Jack Stevens kept us in the game with some massive saves, and Liam Bennett recovered from a shaky start to continue to impress, whilst Fejiri had a huge impact when he came on, but if you haven't guessed we're giving it to George Thomas - what a player we've got there.

Soundtrack of the Match: OMD - How Bizarre

Unsung Hero: Roly Horrey, Andy Duncan and the other U's legends who were interviewed at half-time on the pitch reminding us of their time at the club