Cambridge went into the match with a huge amount of optimism, and so they should have. With 21 names on the list of players to play, Sunday was set to be a game full of experimentation and playing people in new positions. Unfortunately, of the 21 names on the list only 15 showed up (one of which wasn’t even on the original list and turned up last-minute). However, with some fresh new legs on the team and some new players it was time to see what all those weeks of training had done.
The first half saw an impressive display from The Scholars. With sublime passing between Shubber, Pascali, Williamson and Fernández, Cambourne had no idea how to deal with the Cambridge attacks through the middle of the park. Calcott was able to pull the defenders out of position which saw a burst through the midfield from Shubber, who received a pass from Fernández and the ball went flying into the top corner. A corner ball in the 15th minute saw a free header go into the back of the net for Cambourne, making the game 1-1. Another corner two minutes later saw another free header and another goal for 1-2 to the visitors. When Crossland won the ball from the right and played up to Pascali, the ball was fed to Calcott who forced the save. The corner came in and came off of Shubber for the equaliser and Cambridge were dominant once more. Another corner for Cambourne saw the ball ping out of the box and a screamer go in from the D. Another corner saw another goal for Cambourne before half time, making it 2 – 4.
The second half saw some changes which led to a sluggish start, Warren tried to pull his men away from the play, but wasn’t able to keep up the very high energy of his work. Ryan Hinchcliffe came on in the second half to see what he can do between the sticks, pushing John Zhang to Right-Back (and John played very well despite going to catch the ball, then forgetting he wasn’t in goal early on in the second half). Calcott came back on for Warren and the target man came ever so close to getting a goal, but just pipped the shot wide. A few moves over the top led to some dubious decisions from the linesman as Cambourne scored 2 goals from offside positions. The final goal came from a similar move, but a speedy number 9 was too pacey for the Cambridge Centre half and he burst through the play to receive a ball 1-on-1 with new keeper Ryan, who had a fair match despite having the linesman against him all game.
