Cambridge Utd FC v Exeter City FC Match Day Thread

[Colesman Ballz]

Has anyone got a clue what Jevani's goal celebration was all about ? He seemed to be miming digging up the pitch behind the goal.
Certainly didn't seem to shy about celebrating a goal against his former club though !

 

[SEA Grecian]

glad Taylor said there will be changes for Wycombe . If players aren’t pulling there weight throw them it with the reserves for a reality check

Let's not get too carried away! It's only one half of disappointing football in very tough conditions and it's the same bunch of players who have just got us promoted and started the season so well. There also wasn't much in this match; on another day Sam takes one of his half chances or a couple of marginal refereeing decisions go our way and we get something from the game.

 

[SEA Grecian]

Just seen the goals. The first was reminiscent of Stubbsy's against Satanage in respect of the first cross, the Cambridge player was all over our defender like a rash and 99 times out of 100 you would expect a free kick to be given. Then it was just very poor, weak, lazy defending from Sparksey to let the cross come in. The second one we let them play to easily out on the touchline and then when it came Tim Dieng didn't have a clue where his man was, didn't get off the deck and the ball ends up in the back of the net.
Mind you, saying about weak defending, if we had conceded our goal I'd be ripping our defender to pieces for it. It wasn't exactly the strongest challenge by Sam and he went over like a sack $4it and gave the ball away.

Yes, the defending was poor and we can analyse who might have been better. However, the fact that these are very uncharacteristic mistakes suggests the conditions might have played their part. I would also personally be very reluctant to call anyone who is playing in that heat lazy.

 

[IndoMike]

In my role as armchair critic, and assuming the grumpy old farts will not leap out of their armchairs in faux outrage, I would make the following comments :
1. I said before the Chelt'ham game We should rest many players. We didn't.
2. Matt decided to go for it against Cambridge, bringing on Matt Jay and Coley. That is fine, but the result was that Chelt took control of the midfield .
3. Posters have said that Sparkesy was (unsurprisingly) knackered near the end.
I do not understand why Matt is so hesitant about bringing on Caprice. A fresh Caprice is definitely a far better option than a farked Sparkes.

Conclusion
A game away against Cambridge is never easy for City, and there are many excuses we can make for losing : heat, travel, bad luck. But I do not believe that any player in this team is not pulling his weight
Beating Chelt (reserves) 7-0 was great, but 1-0 would have been enough. I think Matt, who I really like and respect, made some errors of judgment about team selection this week, and it hampered our performance v Cambridge. Like all footie managers, they have to make many decisions in a sport that is not always black and white. So my comments are not judgemental, but based on what has happened.
Never mind, anybody can best anybody in this League: we lost. Let's hammer Wycombe next week Onwards and upwards

 

[007]

No.UOTE="Colesman Ballz, post: 2109807, member: 13998"]
Taylor has money at his disposal, he just can't find the players. He is being backed on many fronts, the pitch has been sorted, the Cat and Fiddle redevelopment is underway. It wouldn't be foolish to splash money we don't have on new signings, it would be bleddy suicidal, and could totally negate all the stability that we have striven to obtain.
Get a grip on yourself, we have lost just one game of football by the odd goal in three. And to be blunt, as others have said that was down to Taylor's poor use of substitutions in a ruddy heatwave !
[/QUOTE].
There is absolutely no need to be rude...or perhaps your ignorant of the fact you are being? Either way NOT GOOD
my comment isn't about one loss it's about what were doing to establish our selves in div 1
I'm not talking about putting the club in jeopardy or detaching ourselves from our hard fought sustainablty but as I said I said it's taken 10 seasons of investment to get us here, yet here we are, a couple of games into the season and were short of players, yet with bumper gates from the end of last season into this one fewer players to pay and yet Matt has said repeatedly his budget hasn't changed from div 2, he's constantly been out bid on players and he knows he/we can't compete,, And a month in and on every interview he's repeatedly saying to compete we need more players and here we are against a bottom end div 1 club .. he felt he didn't have enough quality on the bench to change the game.. us/you armchair fans think differently but ... There we go.. At this moment in time IMO note imo.. the squad needs investment, other things can wait. But that's my opinion...

 

[IndoMike]

No.UOTE="Colesman Ballz, post: 2109807, member: 13998"]
Taylor has money at his disposal, he just can't find the players. He is being backed on many fronts, the pitch has been sorted, the Cat and Fiddle redevelopment is underway. It wouldn't be foolish to splash money we don't have on new signings, it would be bleddy suicidal, and could totally negate all the stability that we have striven to obtain.
Get a grip on yourself, we have lost just one game of football by the odd goal in three. And to be blunt, as others have said that was down to Taylor's poor use of substitutions in a ruddy heatwave !

.
There is absolutely no need to be rude...or perhaps your ignorant of the fact you are being? Either way NOT GOOD
my comment isn't about one loss it's about what were doing to establish our selves in div 1
I'm not talking about putting the club in jeopardy or detaching ourselves from our hard fought sustainablty but as I said I said it's taken 10 seasons of investment to get us here, yet here we are, a couple of games into the season and were short of players, yet with bumper gates from the end of last season into this one fewer players to pay and yet Matt has said repeatedly his budget hasn't changed from div 2, he's constantly been out bid on players and he knows he/we can't compete,, And a month in and on every interview he's repeatedly saying to compete we need more players and here we are against a bottom end div 1 club .. he felt he didn't have enough quality on the bench to change the game.. us/you armchair fans think differently but ... There we go.. At this moment in time IMO note imo.. the squad needs investment, other things can wait. But that's my opinion...
[/QUOTE]

Just to pull you up on one point. The club isn't backing Taylor with its investments : it's investing in the club. Taylor couldn't demand a new pitch, although I'm sure he wanted on (as did Tis, when the pitch was then replaced with another crappy one : did any heads roll for that - I doubt it.
And Taylor didn't demand a new training facility - it was obvious we needed one otherwise it would have failed the.Elf & Safety regs. By the way, I don't think such facilities make it easier to attract players at all : they're only interested in salary, length of contract, and location to some extent. Why else do many players go to clubs with crap facilities?
Taylor hasn't been especially backed at all - in fact he has clearly stated that he has a Div 2 budget for a Div 1. team. We'd better be careful - he'll fark off end of season if we have a poor one, and who could blame him.
PS. Nice to have but not essential fancy scoreboards don't score goals. I'd like to know how this is paying for itself : not with vague assurances, but hard data. Also If'd like to know how much energy it uses per quarter. Is it solar?

 

[Red Devon]

Not just lost but well beaten and yes plenty to be positive about.

No team has started the season looking as if they are going to walk away with it and at least 10 have already had the taste of being defeated.

Not withstanding the fact that as proven last season Cambridge are not an easy team to play against with players like Smith, Ironside, Knibbs, Mitov etc in their lineup.

 

[Memphis09]

My only thought on the squad why was Cox not a sub
We had no attacking options as we brought on defenders at the end
I know Matt is after three or four players which means it must be a couple of forwards
Let’s be positive a better start than last season and hopefully a better finish UTC

 

[haka]

Beating Chelt (reserves) 7-0 was great, but 1-0 would have been enough.

Obviously true if it's only about the result, and a place in the next round. But football isn't only about that, especially when supporting a team like ECFC.

This season we probably won't go up (even with a strengthened squad) and we should be too good to go down (again, assuming squad additions at some stage). So it's about the journey as much as the destination (we won't win the EFL Cup either). People will talk about the 7-0 win for a long time, it's in the record books, just as beating Argyle 4-0 is still a great memory, although it was worth no more points than any other win, and we didn't get promoted that season.

Supporting City right now is fun, and there have been long periods in our history when that wasn't true, so let's enjoy it while it lasts. If we'd been at Cheltenham we certainly would have!

 

[IndoMike]

Obviously true if it's only about the result, and a place in the next round. But football isn't only about that, especially when supporting a team like ECFC.

This season we probably won't go up (even with a strengthened squad) and we should be too good to go down (again, assuming squad additions at some stage). So it's about the journey as much as the destination (we won't win the EFL Cup either). People will talk about the 7-0 win for a long time, it's in the record books, just as beating Argyle 4-0 is still a great memory, although it was worth no more points than any other win, and we didn't get promoted that season.

Supporting City right now is fun, and there have been long periods in our history when that wasn't true, so let's enjoy it while it lasts. If we'd been at Cheltenham we certainly would have!

I agree with all of that. My post is in addition to that and with considering the importance of League points and staying up. We continue to have a very limited squad even when everyone is fit, to the extent that Matt was loath to make his 5:changes even when the conditions were very challenging.