U's v Crewe

[Habbinalan]

Not really worth it's own thread but it has a chance to be the last L2 thread for a single match of 2017 - so why not?

These Xmas & New Year fixtures have felt a bit like the phony war or waiting to go over the top - we're just waiting to see who will be in charge (on and off the pitch) when Paul Barry becomes majority shareholder in January, which stalwarts (Dunk? Legge?) will pack their bags and join Josh Coulson in formally leaving (to Orient in his case) and whether 28 yr old Ricky Miller (due in court on 30 April charged with assaullting a cop) fits our much vaunted recruitment profile of young, hungry and with something to prove. Is the Jezolution over or just going through another cycle?

I'm predicting a frustrating 1-1 draw for this one but we are quite capable of winning if we play with a bit of width for more than half the match. I'm expecting Taft to sign from Mansfield so it'll be interesting to see if ex-captain Leon is in our back 4 today and Monday. I'm also hoping that Jabo will be fit enough to come off the bench and the blessed Melito has tripped on the dance floor at a Xmas gig and is unavailable - it seems Derry will never drop him.

My selection would be different to fellow U's on here and Derry wouldn't pick this 11 + 7

Forde (hopefully over his dip in form)
Halliday, Legge, Taft, Carroll (Greg Taylor returning on Monday at Colchester)
Deegan, O'Neil
Amoo, Brown, Maris
Ikpeazu

Bench: Mitov, Taylor, Davies, Knowles, Ibhere, Azeez, Lewis

Crowds have been down all season but I know a couple of mates who are back for this one so we might top 4,000 attending if the Railwaymen can bring more than 200.

 

[Crewelad87]

Don' think we'e ever beaten a shuan derry team so cznt see us getting anything here

Cambridge 3-1 Crewe (Ikpeazu 2, Elito, Porter) 4,222 (204 railwaymen)

 

[Vanni]

Are we sure St Melito is actually this Don-E chap? I may rate him as a footballer, but there's no way I can offer any sort of support for that type of erm 'music', if it's really him that is. I don't even get it then how can I? Though I'm sure that won't stop me from trying to

Speaking of the blessed Saint, I expect us to get awarded a penalty today, law of averages and all that, in fact when was the last time we got one? HE will then step up and rather effortlessly tuck it away of course

 

[TimeyWimey]

My biggest worry is we’re not quite as shite as two other clubs in this league and we’ll survive.

The sooner we go down and rid ourselves of parasites like the academy and Norman Hassall, the sooner we can support a proper football club again.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Sean Dyer
@DyerSean_
#CreweAlex fans moaning about being relegated yet we're still 5 points clear with everyone below as woeful and sorry as us. Give it a rest!

Crewe Alexandra - stealing a football league place since 2006.

That’s the height of this clubs ambitions.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Imagine us without the academy providing “our best players”?

Fucking lol.

Constantly told we would be worse off without the academy. They believe it is literally impossible to run a football club in the football league. Every other club without an academy is an illusion.

 

[Vanni]

Could've been more, quite easily in fact. Crewe were woeful and changes have got to be made, either a couple of January signings or a change in manager. Thing is I don't know if Artell can do more with this technically limited squad. I've been saying for a while now that Barnet and FGR will stay up, and I'm unsure on Chesterfield though right now I'd say they'll stay up too. If I'm right, then the question is who'll go down, and on today's showing Crewe are contenders for one of the two spots.

 

[Vanni]

And oh, get rid of Jabo asap please. Didn't think I'd be saying this but his signing has turned out to be a massive waste of money, and then he manages to gets himself sent off to top it all off.

 

[Habbinalan]

Crewe were unbelievably awful and wide open, through the middle and down the flanks, in the first half. We wasted bucket loads of chances again and managed to make hard work of it but Crewe offered little threat, even when we backed off and gave them room to play it around in the second half.

The blessed Melito had a decent game, as his defensive skills were not needed. Who would have thought that we have a half decent right winger in the camp - Amoo and Halliday on the right and our fleet footed overlapping left back Greg Taylor had a field day.

Jabo sent off for his retaliatory stamp/scrape hardly took the gloss of the overall performance. I suspect that Ng may suffer a retrospective ban for his initial contribution.

You can only beat what is in front of you and I expect that Monday will see a sterner opposition, against whom we'll do well to get a draw. That said, I'd be happy to see us get another win, even if it saves Derry's job. ??

The original Don-E is Donald McLean. I've no idea if this Don E is Medy or some other prancer.

Don E claims he was born in Kinshasa, just like Medy.

 

[Laker]

I went today after missing Boxing Day (and I was at the Newport game). I thought we played very well and dominated throughout, Crewe’s goal was completely against the run of play and their first shot of the first half while we missed two literally open goals in addition to the two we scored. Second half was a bit closer but we were still largely in control.

Whatever happens with Derry, I can’t fault the displays against Newport or Crewe. The Notts County game was obviously a fuck up all round while we picked up a solid if boring win against Barnet from what I’ve read. We could conceivably have got 10 or even 22 points from the last 4 games and we’d be right in the play off mix. That just seems nuts to me as we’re a very mediocre League 2 team.

So Derry will keep his job for the time being and I hope we don’t give him any money in January, then see him gone when his contract expires at the end of the season. Although we’re only 4 points off the play offs, I’ve still written this season off.

 

[Vanni]

Don't know if you're being serious or not Alan, but Elito had a poor game today and was rightly subbed off. Too much partying in his Don E alter ego I suppose. Re. Jabo's red, nobody seemed to know what it was for at the time, but Derry suggested he was provoked. Still, whether true or not, this has nothing to do with my opinion that we need to get rid of, and I suspect he'll be the first one to go out on loan if Derry does indeed get another striker in. I know he's still not 100% fit, but afaic he's been the biggest disappointment this season, more so than the likes of Osadebe and Azeez only because I've seen enough of him to make up my mind. I expected much much more from such an experienced striker.

I heard a little rumour on Derry this week. Whether we win lose or draw against Colchester will have no bearing on his future here as the club is supposedly willing to stick with him til the end of the season. Apparently, the reasoning behind this is that he'll get himself another job lined up and the club won't have to offer him a new contract. If this is true, I won't say this is surprising news to me as I was pretty sure we weren't going to sack him in January but it sure raises a number of questions. The obvious one is that running down a manager's contract is almost unheard of, and much too risky IMO. The other standout question is what will happen if we go on a positive run and possibly make the play offs?

Still, it's only a rumour so who really knows. Could be a load of bull after all.

 

[SVH]

Well Crewe were like a rabbit in he headlights in the first half and we really should have been out of sight after 30 mins.

We played some excellent football at times and it's good to see Amoo getting fitter and taking his chance today.

Brown a class act again, Maris, Taft, Legge and Uche all very good.

I fancy us to get something at Colchester.

 

[Arbury]

I fancy us to get something at Colchester.

yeah a fucking good hiding!

 

[huddsmoose]

I also heard today that the Board have decided to stick with Derry until the end of the season - the argument seems to be that he's not had free choice over signings and that therefore he can't be fairly judged.

Implied within that, that recruitment processes will change and January signings made.

Personally I still think we're backing the wrong horse, but as Colin Proctor said earlier - we'll find out who's right at the end of the year.

 

[SVH]

yeah a fucking good hiding!

Bring your stone island gear then.

 

[Arbury]

Bring your stone island gear then.

im more of a flat cap and pipe kinda man!!

I hope Derry proves me wrong.

 

[Laker]

If we avoid defeat at Colchester and beat Mansfield then I could be convinced that Derry deserves a stay of execution.

 

[JJ1532]

Well, we were shite as per usual. Can't fault anything the Cambridge fans have put to be honest, they could and should have been 4-0 before it was 2-0, wasted some great opportunities. We got back into the game with a well worked move and had a good 10 minute spell to start the 2nd half, but other than that it was all Cambridge.

The midfield 2 of Pickering and Grant were always going to get mauled, so lightweight. Defence is what it is, can't expect them to play well when they're under pressure for most of the game. But individual errors killed us. Eddie Nolan was supposed to be playing RB, but a minute in and he's nowhere to be found, easy goal for Maris. 2nd, Bakayogo goes for a ball high up the pitch, misses it, Amoo has a clear run on goal and another easy finish. Then Raynes doesn't cut out a long ball, Uche works it well out wide, gets in the box and has a free header. Woeful defending. but when the strikers can't create chances and the midfield can't hold onto the ball, the defence is always going to struggle. As already stated, easy win for Cambridge, they had a nervy 10 minutes at the start of the 2nd half, but other than that, they were supremely comfortable and way better than our rabble.

We are totally shit, we need 4-5 players in January to have a good chance at staying in this league. We need a RB, an attacking midfielder, a winger and a striker, as a minimum. Cooper can get fired into the sun, another game where he looks totally wank. Total waste of space, if he was a free agent come the summer I'd release him. Going nowhere at the moment. We need to bin off Porter, he's a fucking donkey who by some miracle has managed to score 9 goals(not giving him the Chesterfield one, that was an OG). Thats probably because they've mostly come against shite teams. His last 5 league goals have come against Barnet, Chesterfield(3 if you count the Boxing Day one) and FGR.

He's slow, wank on the ground and has a shit work rate. Bowery I've got a bit more time for, but he frequently has games where you wonder how he ever became a footballer and today was one of those games. Grant can go back to Everton next week and enjoy a future career in the non-leagues come the summer, because he isn't football league standard. Brad Walker I've heard rumoured to be on his way out, disappointing as he's not been given a run of games in midfield, but then he's slow and lackadaisical, so I'm not fussed if he does go.

We haven't got a natural RB and it's been an issue all season when Ng has either been poor or not played. We've put anyone and everyone out there, nobody has looked comfy, even Nolan, who should know how to play that position. Jones and Wintle coming back makes a difference to midfield, but they are probably a month away from being fit to contribute properly. Need a Callum Cooke esq attacking midfielder desperately, the midfield(if you include Walker in that group) have 1 goal. A shocking total. Need a forward to replace Porter/Bowery, got the promising Reilly on the bench who can't get games, same with Owen Dale. If you aren't using them, we need someone else to come in and beef up that area.

Other than the ever shite Cooper, the raw(probably shite) Kirk and a promising but still stop/start Ainley, we've got no creativity from the wide areas. Need a quick winger who can run at people and put balls in the box, maybe even score a few, given the aforementioned trio have 5 between them.

Oh and finally, we need a new manager. Yeah yeah, what could a new manager do with this group? Stop selecting square pegs in round holes? Stop constantly chopping and changing line ups for....reasons. Stop naming stupid formations and ridiculous stand off tactics when the opposition have the ball? Actually know how to motivate a team well enough that they don't go 1-0 down or more inside the first 15 minutes of games 10 times out of 32 games this season. Or motivate them to that they can actually perform somewhat consistently?

They board will let him limp on because we win every now and again and have occasionally shown we can perform to a decent standard. They'll hope he can get enough quality in over the next few weeks to improve us. I think its touch and go if we stay up, after Grimsby we have a brutal run of fixtures, something like 8 of 9 are against teams in the top half. If we can get out of that run with our heads above water, we might be ok. But we've got a massive January coming up, need to make some serious player changes and fast. And Artell shouldn't think that Ray, Jones and Wintle coming back solves anything, because it doesn't. We need 4-5 new faces and quick.

 

[JJ1532]

Perry Ng gets a retrospective 4 game ban(3 for the incident, extended to 4 for his 2nd red card this season) for the Ibehre incident at the end of the game. Silly incident which neither needed to be involved in. Not the first time Ng has gotten into trouble this season. There was his 20 minute red card for 2 yellows against Newport, he got into a tussle with Elliott Bennett against Blackburn in the FA Cup which saw Bennett suspended, now this. He's not a violent or dirty player, but he does need to chill out a bit at times.

 

[TommoCUFC]

Perry Ng gets a retrospective 4 game ban(3 for the incident, extended to 4 for his 2nd red card this season) for the Ibehre incident at the end of the game. Silly incident which neither needed to be involved in. Not the first time Ng has gotten into trouble this season. There was his 20 minute red card for 2 yellows against Newport, he got into a tussle with Elliott Bennett against Blackburn in the FA Cup which saw Bennett suspended, now this. He's not a violent or dirty player, but he does need to chill out a bit at times.

I'd say the ever growing list of retrospective action suggests he is objectively a dirty player

 

[Laker]

Ibehre shouldn’t have reacted. He’s a dick too.