It's two 12:30 kick offs in as many Saturdays for the U’s as they make the trip up to Salford on the back of a battling goalless draw against Gillingham and an unfortunate midweek defeat by West Ham U21’s in the Vertu Trophy. Danny Cowley was announced as the League Two Manager of the Month this morning and I’m hoping the dreaded Manager of the Month curse doesn’t raise it’s ugly head tomorrow. Although I think I remember someone completely disproving the theory that there is any kind of curse.
With no one from Tuesday night really pushing their case for starting spot I’m expecting the U’s to line up as follows:
Macey
Vincent Young Tucker Araujo Iandolo
Bishop Read
Lisbie Anderson
Mbick
Tovide
Subs
Smith Hunt Goodwin Gape Edwards Williams Kuffour Jr. (Terry if Araujo injured)
This means there’s no place in the squad for Oni, Gordon or Powell. With Payne, Baldwin, Perry, Akande and Flanagan all still unavailable due to injury.
Araujo looked in a fair bit of discomfort towards the end of the Gillingham game, I was surprised he managed to carry on at the time, but he did seem to be moving better by full time. I did think it may be cramp but the fact that he didn’t figure against West Ham U21’s, possibly cup-tied, and that we’ve recalled Terry from Braintree makes me worried that it’s a more serious issue. If Araujo is unavailable the obvious replacement, with Flanagan and Baldwin both being out, is Kuffour Jr., who has looked decent in the Vertu Trophy games. Another option would be to bring Hunt into the back four but that might lead to other positional changes.
Despite sitting three places and two points above us in the table Salford’s recent league form has been patchy to say the least with two wins, two defeats and two draws in their last six matches. They’ve also had two high scoring cup games recently, a 4-0 victory over Leyton Orient last Friday and a 7-2 defeat by Rotherham a few days previous, both at home. Our record against Salford is a positive one with six wins and three draws from 12 previous meetings however they were the only team in League Two last season that we didn’t take at least a point off. There are a few former U’s in the Salford squad with Ossama Ashley, Luke Garbutt and Dan Chesters all currently in their squad although I’m only expecting Garbutt, who is their captain, to figure tomorrow. On the subject of Garbutt I remember when he first signed on loan for us thinking how good he looked and that he was playing at a level far beneath his ability. It seems that injuries prevented him having the career many expected him to have (he was capped by England at U16 to U21 level) and he only made five appearances for Everton in between loan spells at Cheltenham, us, Fulham, Wigan, Oxford and Ipswich before joining Blackpool, where he spent three seasons, and he’s now in his third season at Salford.
Tomorrow will be the Danny and Nicky’s 100th game in charge of the U’s. No mean feat in the world of modern football and although it’s not always been smooth sailing I, for one, am so glad we’ve stuck with them. They really have transformed the club both on and off the pitch, which was never going to be easy given we were in a pretty dark place back in January 2024. I feel like we now have a team and a club that we believe in and can get behind and that’s all you really want as a supporter. Since Williams left in 2008 we’ve had 14 permanent managers and only three of them (Ward, McGreal and Cowley) managed the 100 game milestone. I expect Cowley to surpass Ward but he’ll have to go some to overtake McGreal who took charge for over 200 games!
The weather at the Peninsula Stadium tomorrow is, surprisingly, set to be dry and sunny with light winds and a high of 10 degrees. Pretty decent footballing conditions, especially for December. As it’s Danny's 100th game in charge I feel a 1-1 draw would be somewhat fitting and I’m backing Mbick to get our goal.
Up the U’s! |  |
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