Seeing as who we are playing today, the title is this 1967 Dottie Cambridge Northern Soul single, which was 200 on the top 500 Northern Soul Songs (in the Kev Roberts book). She did have a much bigger hit with Misty Blue in the seventies under her real name of Dorothy Moore. Today may well be my fault as I picked this title even before watching the game.
Quiz answer time, which side replaced Barrow in the Football League when they failed to gain re-election in 1972? Hereford United. It was only two years after today’s opponents, Cambridge United, were elected to the league in the place of Bradford Park Avenue.
We are in away action a week after the disappointed defeat at home to Barrow. The venue is Cambridge where we started our away action in League One last season with a win in the sunshine with a late Ade Adeyemo goal. He won’t be playing today after getting injured last week. He wasn’t the only casualty from that game either, as Harvey Davies isn’t going to be playing after picking up a finger injury when conceding the first goal, so it will be a first league appearance of the season for JoJo Wollacott.
The evening after the Barrow game I thought to watch the 49ers only for them to have the kind of home display I’m used to elsewhere, fumbles, interceptions, shooting themselves in the foot, letting the other team run the length of the pitch unchallenged to score and losing to a team who couldn’t win a meat raffle if they were the only ones in the social club. But they did manage a win on Thursday night, so hopefully that’s a good omen for today.
We have had thirteen previous league games against Cambridge United, the majority of which were in League Two, with just the two last season in League One, where we won at their place in our first away game of the season, but we lost at home. In total we’ve won five and lost eight, at Cambridge we’ve won two and lost five. In addition we have played them once in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy winning that game. We also played them for six seasons in the Conference winning six, drawing four, and losing two, with two wins, two draws, and two losses at Cambridge. We also played them in the FA Trophy in 200-09 winning 5-0. We also played them in the single season spent in the Southern League Premier Division in 1969-70, the season which at the end of they were elected to the Football League. We lost both of those games that season, including an 8-0 drubbing away, which I though might be some kind of record, but a quick glance shows me it wasn’t even the worst result that season. The season before we started playing Cambridge United, we had also played Cambridge City in the FA Trophy, losing in a fourth-round replay.
There are a load of programmes from those games in the load I’ve acquired.
But the moody black and white one from last year is one of the better-looking programmes I’ve seen for a while.
Back in the early nineties Cambridge United were in Division Two and came close to getting promoted to the top flight, in their ranks was Dion Dublin, and he was in the Proset collections for both 1990-91 and 1991-92. Dion was born in Leicester and is only a year older than me, I knew and played against his cousin Eddie a couple of times. Eddie was a hell of a player, but Dion was more committed. And Dion is still linked with the club and appears in adverts in their current programme.
Jack Roles used to play for Cambridge, and Scott Malone rejoined us from them after playing for them last season, and Ryan Loft is on loan to us from them, and they have enforced him not being able to play against the parent club today. Meanwhile the Cambridge squad includes Sullay Kaikai who was on loan to us from Crystal Palace back in 2014.
We go into the game seven points and eleven places behind Cambridge, so hopefully we can repeat last year’s result and reduce both of those deficits. And hope their fans have lost their bloody clackers.
Usually there are direct trains from Three Bridges to Cambridge, yet for some reason, on a day when they would be well used, there are no direct trains, and all routes are involving a change, either at Finsbury Park or Stevenage, as why wouldn’t they choose today?
Pre match wandering around Cambridge, pass the Fitzwilliam Museum and I wonder why no one calls it bastard Billy’s.
With too much time in my head I also wonder if there was a fire at Corpus Christi, would it then be called Corpus Crispy? And if the ice cream is too hard would this place need to remove the r from its name?
I get the usual pen and fridge magnet from the club shop. The staff in there and around the ground are friendly too.
It’s not a bad programme, it has five pages of Crawley Town content, although two of the four players to watch are out injured. There is also a feature on our top ten post war defenders, that’s one to start on the forum for discussion. Perhaps playing all ten of them might help out currently.
There is a team sheet up on display, but it isn’t for today, it would appear we’re not the only club who are piss poor at keeping things up to date.
The Steve Claridge bar has given up, even before we get there (more Leicester connections there).
There is a sticker board up outside the stand in the vain hope it will get used instead of stickers getting placed on every other available surface in the stadium. (Facebook posts suggest it failed.)
And then it is kick off time, we are playing in all white with red trim, and Cambridge are in some kind of combination of yellow and black.
Not long has gone and Gavan Holohan picks up a booking. Harsh as he can’t disappear into thin air and the attacker runs straight into him.
A long ball down the left isn’t dealt with and Dion Conroy just about scrambles it behind for a corner. It’s taken long and goes for a throw. The wind is making the game a bit scrappy, even when the ball is played on the deck. The away fans are in good voice and making all the noise.
A long ball sees a Cambridge player offside, but the lino is three yards behind play and doesn’t give it. Cambridge win a corner. It comes in low, bounces, no one deals with it, and it’s prodded in, and we trail 0-1.
Decent play down the left Kaheim Dixon and Harry Forster combine well and win a corner. It hits the first man. A lot of slow possession eventually leads to a decent attack. Kyle Scott, Dixon, and Forster play it across and Dion Pereira has a shot just wide.
A Scott shot is blocked on the edge of the area and Cambridge break quickly, but the combined efforts of Conroy and Josh Flint break it up. Any attempt at a long ball forward are being taken by the wind and out for goal kicks. A ball into the box from Cambridge sees them get a shot in which JoJo Wollacott saves, the follow up cross goes out for a throw.
Some reasonable spell of possession without ever really looking threatening, back, and forth, and then down the right to Pereira who crosses it, it comes to Gerardo Bajrami, but his shot is a bit tame and goes wide as well.
Forster is fouled about thirty yards out on the left. Scott floats it in, and it’s put out for a corner, it’s cleared, and Harry McKirdy gets a talking to from the ref for berating the lino over a non-decision.
Both Forster and Pereira put crosses in, but no one gets on the end of them. Cambridge break quickly down the left and have a shot straight at Wollacott. We have a quick break and McKirdy feeds Dixon, for a moment he looks through, but can’t quite outpace the defender, cuts inside but can’t feed it back to McKirdy and the chance has gone. Undeterred it comes to McKirdy on the next attack, he clips it over the defence to Holohan who’s shot is saved and he’s wiped out by the keeper as well.
The lino our side misses another blatant offside being behind play again and it’s results in a Cambridge free kick in a dangerous position, but it comes to nothing.
There are three added minutes at the end of the half, the Cambridge goalie is taking forever with every ball caught. The Crawley fans are counting out loud how long he’s holding it and getting well into double figures every time. Has any ref given against corner under these new rules in the league yet this season?
The half time whistle goes and we trail 0-1. At half time we make a substitution with Forster going off to be replaced by the returning Jack Roles.
As in the first half, there is an early booking, this time for Charlie Barker. The free kick on the left is about thirty yards out and is swung in deep, headed back to the edge of the six-yard box and prodded in to make it 0-2.
We get a ball out to Pereira on the right; he cuts into the box and unleashes a shot which is more danger to the corner flag than the goal. Dixon is next to be subbed, being replaced by Kabby Tshimanga.
Roles loses the ball in midfield and Cambridge break quickly down the right, get a cross in and that is tapped in to make it 0-3.
There is still plenty of noise from the Crawley fans, but it is all negative now. And some in there aren’t happy with the constant chants of ‘we’re fucking shit’, and groups of fans are arguing amongst themselves. I’m all for a bit of gallows humour but this was too much, too early in the season. And there was one ‘fan’ whose racist shout at Tshimanga should really see him getting a ban.
And Cambridge are nearly in again, Flint loses the ball, but the shot doesn’t trouble Wollacott. We break and Holohan plays a ball into the box, McKirdy gets a touch on it, but that takes it away from Tshimanga just behind him and it goes for a goal kick.
We win a corner; it goes straight to the keeper. A ball back down the right to Pereira is put in, McKirdy’s shot is parried, and Tshimanga finishes it off, we pull one back 1-3.
At least we’re still trying, but we lose the ball down the left and Cambridge break quickly, but the end shot goes over the bar. We win a free kick on the left and the Cambridge player kicks our player who’s down. Nothing. Conroy has a long discussion with the ref, and then before restarting the ref books Scott, presumably for something said, and Conroy is taking with the ref again.
The free kick is played long and McKirdy wins a corner but is claiming a penalty. It comes deep and Barker clips it back in and Flint’s header is just over. We make another sub, taking Scott off before he can say anything else and get sent off. He’s replaced by Reece Brown.
Another attack down the right and Barker crosses but it’s too deep. Scott Lindsey gets a booking for moaning (rightly) about the time wasting.
Pereira beats his man down the right and crosses; it’s put behind for a corner. The keeper punches and lays Roles out as well. We get another corner, Barker is rugby tackled to the ground, but Cambridge allowed to come out with ball and Brown gets a booking for stopping them.
Coming out from the back and Flint is scythed down late, not even the homer ref could avoid getting the yellow out for that one. And finally the piss taking keeper gets a booking for time wasting.
Roles wins a corner, it comes in, and Conroy is having his shirt taken off him as he’s dragged down. We get another corner from which it’s Flint’s turn to be pulled to the ground with nothing being given.
There are six added minutes. Enough time for Roles to get a booking and then a minute later get a stern talking to for an off the ball coming together where he might have been a bit lucky to stay on.
Flint wins another corner, which the keeper takes, and the final whistle goes for another loss 1-3.
More internal bickering in our fan base. Abuse hurled at our players, Lindsey turns and cuts short his clapping the fans and Tshimanga drags McKirdy away as he is fuming and looks like he’d quite happily get into it with the fans.
The crowd was announced as 6,607 with a decent contingent of 435 away fans, a figure likely to dwindle after the actions of some this afternoon.
There is no change to our position in the league, we stay twenty-first, but Cheltenham won, and Shrewsbury drew so there isn’t much of a gap now.
It was a frustrating game. I heard a comment about not wanting to spend the time and money to come to away games to feel like this. And “where was the fight of the last twenty minutes in the rest of the game.” Both are reasonable questions. It does seem like Deja-vu all over again, conceding silly goals, not being able to score at the other end. Someone needs the jump leads to shock the season back to life.
I do wonder whether the amount of horseshit on the path from the main road to the away end was prophetic.
Post match curry opposite the ground allows a bit of calm before the journey home. Although I did stitch myself up with train tickets. Could have sworn I’d ticked the box for returns and selected trains both ways, only to find I’d only got singles and so needed to get more for the trip home. Twat! On the way to the station we did see something you don’t expect to see just wandering around. After all it’s not every day you see a giraffe in a Cambridge United kit in someone’s front garden.
Quiz time – Why did Osvaldo Ardiles have the squad number one in the Argentine 1978 world cup squad?
Next up is an away game against Leyton Orient in the Vertu Trophy (always assuming they don’t change the name of the trophy in the meantime) before we are back at home next Saturday against table topping Walsall. What could possibly go round.
Come on you reds.