Can the wombles please slip!

[Nash87]

Can the wombles please slip up against stevenage and get a point at max against newport thanks much love the amber army

 

[Clapham Womble]

Ok we will, since you asked so nicely.

And when we do, I hope people remember that it is because of our generous response to this request, and not because we choked...

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Well Cambridge are guaranteed 3 points on Saturday anyway..

 

[Nash87]

Well Cambridge are guaranteed 3 points on Saturday anyway..

Great faith haha you making the journey yourself?

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Great faith haha you making the journey yourself?

I'm not unfortunately, at a family wedding this Saturday! The cheek of it, organising a wedding 2 games before the end of the season. Some people!

 

[huddsmoose]

I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Plymouth but I don't expect us to win at Mansfield for some reason.

We've played with much more freedom in the last couple of games, I hope that continues for the next two, we get to 70 points and can look forward to mounting a serious promotion challenge next year.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Didn't Cambridge spend a fair bit in the summer just gone? Or am I making it up? I seem to remember thinking you'd be challenging for autos this season

 

[Tom_CUFC]

"Top 7 budget" (top 5 I reckon) but signed quite a few duffers on high salaries and gave a manager who should've gone last season a contract extension and complete handle on transfer policy, which hampered us for the first 3 months he was here directly on the pitch and for the rest of it off it, just emphasises what a great job Derry has done salvaging our season.

 

[Habbinalan]

Didn't Cambridge spend a fair bit in the summer just gone? Or am I making it up? I seem to remember thinking you'd be challenging for autos this season

Barry Corr injured, with no adequate replacement, and bad keeeper choices coming home to roost are the specifics that you can home in on. The money wasted by Richard Money is probably a lesser issue than his deteriorating relationship with the players and the (more patient than many) fans.

For all his duff decisions, we do have Leon Legge, Barry Corr, Luke Berry and hopefully for next season, Connor Newton to thank him for.........and but for the sequence of events that came to a head in October rather than the summer, I can't imagine we'd have appointed Derry.

The spending was on contracts signing on fees and agents, rather than transfers, and there were a lot - including the above plus Elliot Omozusi, Mark Roberts, Jeff Hughes, Keith Keane and some earlier decision like Slew, Carr, Chiedozie.and our stuttering Irish Experiment. Interestingly, despite all the activity, especially loans, we appear to have spent nothing on agents' fees since last September (at close of the window).

These figures are for 1 Oct 2015 to 1 Feb 2016. We were second highest in L2 in the previous 6 months, although Jez had an explanation at our AGM in Feb: ......... Someone raised the point about the large amount that was spent on agents fees, the second highest in League Two. Jez said that this was largely down to the fact that after the Cup money came in they paid off a large number of fees while they could, including some that would have been spread over two years, as some kind of explanation for why the figure was so high. As such it won't be that high moving forward.

As far as the ManUre money goes, we "spent" or have in the current account about £400-500k of it and have/will invest about £800-900k.

Finances
The key financial headline: Operating profit was £1.30m before tax, having been a loss of just under £125k the year before.
Turnover for the year to 30 June 15 was £5.73m, up from £2.41m the year before.

The £1.3m pretty much equates to the FA Cup money from last season. Without this the club would have virtually been at an operational break-even for the year.

Of this, a third is being put towards correcting the historic cash flow deficit, namely the fact that there's no income during the summer. A third is for capital investment, ie the changing rooms, Dublin Suite, training ground, dugouts, floodlights, pitch drainage, catering. A third has been locked away for doing up the Habbin when the time comes.

Read more: http://cambridgeunitedfc.proboards.com/thread/7883/agm-tonight#ixzz472INfpTM

 

[Gassy]

Why? What's the point in getting to the play offs when you're so far behind all of the top 6? I know it's a lottery and all that, but the top 6 are way ahead of anyone 8th and below in my opinion

 

[Laker]

I don't think it's a lottery at all but there is an argument that we're not far off 5th or 6th (in terms of ability) on the basis of our post November points haul.

 

[womble76]

Does 7th exsist in some kind of vortex?

 

[Vanni]

Why? What's the point in getting to the play offs when you're so far behind all of the top 6? I know it's a lottery and all that, but the top 6 are way ahead of anyone 8th and below in my opinion

How many sides have taken 4 points off Northampton like we did this year? And how many of the play off contenders can be said to be quite consistent?

There's not a lot between the sides in 2nd and 10th, as evidenced by inconsistent results week in week out. Now, I don't reckon we'll make the play offs, as I think Derry got it wrong tactically in direct matches and tried to settle for a point instead of playing for all 3 at stake, and also because I can't see the Wombles failing to get the two points they need to make sure of 7th. However I'll say this - if we make the po's then we have as much chance of going up as all the others do. We certainly won't be humiliated in the semis.

 

[Gassy]

How many sides have taken 4 points off Northampton like we did this year? And how many of the play off contenders can be said to be quite consistent?

There's not a lot between the sides in 2nd and 10th, as evidenced by inconsistent results week in week out. Now, I don't reckon we'll make the play offs, as I think Derry got it wrong tactically in direct matches and tried to settle for a point instead of playing for all 3 at stake, and also because I can't see the Wombles failing to get the two points they need to make sure of 7th. However I'll say this - if we make the po's then we have as much chance of going up as all the others do. We certainly won't be humiliated in the semis.

Well you first point is pretty void, we took 1 point from Northampton, but took 6 from you and Pompey took 6 from us. So I don't believe (personally) you can base whether teams are play off contenders from their ability against one side. If anything, I believe your point shows that you have potential ability in your team but don't know how to use it at the right time. And regarding how many play offs team having the consistency, then I'd have to argue all of them to be honest, hence why no one has touched the top 6 in weeks. Perhaps you could argue Plymouth but they're still a good side and not to be underestimated.

Whilst I agree, somewhat, in your post, the other side of me thinks, 'Well they can't be that inconsistent as the points tally of the top 6 looks to be higher than it has in recent years', albeit there are 2 games to go. I don't believe you'd be humiliated, thats for sure. But I don't believe you'd make it past the semi's personally. Who knows, if you some how got in, perhaps that could work in your favour - I guess thats what we all love about speculation and football.

 

[SVH]

The point Vanni is making here is the fact anyone can beat anyone in this league. Although the top 6 haven't been troubled for some 6 or 7 weeks, maybe more, we have seen some very strange results - and they have usually been followed from a good result for the losing side.

Plymouth have lost to D&R. Pompey have lost at York. The mighty Rovers couldn't beat Stevenage. Whether us or Wimbledon finish 7th, the team is not to be taken lightly.

Personally I think Wimbledon will get over the line and hopefully they go on to win the PO's.

 

[AtaturkOzgutson]

I realise we're speaking in pure hypothetical terms but...If we somehow ended up in the play-offs, which takes Wimbledon failing to beat two pony sides and us beating two decent sides, we'd win by virtue of the laws of the universe having shifted seismically in our favour. Duh.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Why? What's the point in getting to the play offs when you're so far behind all of the top 6? I know it's a lottery and all that, but the top 6 are way ahead of anyone 8th and below in my opinion

Here lies the current difference in confidence from our respective fan bases. It takes me to look all the way down to Hartlepool in 16th to find a team that I think we could beat over 2 legs 75% of the time. Even with them I'm not sure about!

 

[Laker]

Picking an arbitrary date from which to measure form can make most teams look good (even Dagenham if you only choose one week).

Had a look and the top seven from 1st December is:

1. Northampton
2. Bristol Rovers
3. Accrington
4. Wimbledon
5. Portsmouth
6. Oxford
7. Cambridge

Plymouth are the team that drop out, down in 9th (behind Barnet).

The suggestion was made that we're a long way short of the quality needed for the play offs. I'd say 5 months of play off level points accumulation would dispel that, which was the point I was trying to make. I deliberately didn't pick a shorter period as the counter argument would be that it isn't a big enough sample if games.

But yes, stats can be made to mean anything and the only stats that matter are the ones which make up the league table at the moment. However that league table is completely irrelevant once we get to the play offs themselves.

 

[AtaturkOzgutson]

At the end of the day, even going back 5/10 games, it didn't look likely we'd even get as close to the play-offs as we have. At the start of the season I'd said we'd finish 9th-12th, and even after the Derry upturn it looked unlikely we'd finish top 10.

We still may not, in fairness, but 8th sets us up nicely after a season of upheaval and 90ish players over two managers since we've returned to the league. Fezes off!

 

[StuartD]

Personally I am happy that my team have a chance of gate-crashing the playoffs after giving up on Good Friday when we lost 1-0 up at Hartlepool.

Their is no pressure on our boys as we have over achieved if we get into the playoffs and I don't think any of the teams will fancy playing us. Personally I would rather play Plymouth as they are the team out of form and we beat them recently 2-1, however our defeat against a strong Pompey team on Tuesday means its likely we will play whoever misses out on automatic promotion. Out of them teams I would rather play Accrington or Bristol Rovers as we have already taken 4 points of Accrington and we drew 0-0 at home to Rovers when down to 10 men all game and lost a tight game at their place although it ended 3-1 to them.

Lets be fair though the playoffs are likely to be won by the odd goal as it is reasonably tight this season.