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Down the Abbey ..... Cambridge match thread


Reesh

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I’m sat smiling tonight after that, we scrapped when we needed to and restricted them to next to nothing in terms of chances. 
The defence were excellent, and every one of them deserve a pat on the back. Great to see Gregory back being predatory, and cool under pressure.
Byers back is a boost too, we’ve got plenty to be positive about. 
 

 

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17 minutes ago, HappyOwl said:

He’s our striker he’s our number 9. Turn up grab 3 points go home 🙌🙌🙌 get in.

According to my social media Gregory is a blade 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ why can’t Rotherham fans just enjoy their weekend after a win 

Why? Small club syndrome

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There was a gulf in quality today. The one way they could compete was with effort and they did 2nd half. We were very poor after half time until probably our substitutions and the change of shape.  A combination of aimless long balls to nowhere and losing possession regularly.  

Grateful for the 3 points and we move on. Nice to see Gregory back in the goals.  What happened with the 2nd goal? From 120 yards away it looked like he'd saved it: then we were all cheering!

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Just now, Owling_Wolf said:

There was a gulf in quality today. The one way they could compete was with effort and they did 2nd half. We were very poor after half time until probably our substitutions and the change of shape.  A combination of aimless long balls to nowhere and losing possession regularly.  

Grateful for the 3 points and we move on. Nice to see Gregory back in the goals.  What happened with the 2nd goal? From 120 yards away it looked like he'd saved it: then we were all cheering!

The 2nd goal looped off the defender, and it seemed to wrong foot the keeper

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I quite enjoyed todays game for perhaps the wrong reasons.

First half, good. 4-4-2, Bannan and Windass getting space wide and behind the full backs, plenty of 2v1’s in wide areas. Vaulks and Bakinson picking up the second balls, the back four, nice and solid. We should have gone in probably 2-up at half time.

Second half, Bakinson went missing, not so much without the ball, but with it. And we just couldn’t keep the ball. A lot of crosses from Cambridge that either got headed clear or plucked out by Stockdale. Moore did the right thing by changing shape and as soon as Byers came on, all of a sudden, the ball was moving in midfield, and it was finding the forwards feet.

Some really good displays today. They whole back four, defensively were excellent. Vaulks was really good, I like him, he’s probably not as good a ‘footballer’ as Massimo Luongo, but, he’s quite an athlete, quick, strong, good in the air, good engine. Gregory, bizarrely, I thought was poor, as was Smith, but Gregory took his chances well. All of our good stuff came from Windass and Bannan, who both in the first half ran the game. I thought Bakinson first half was good too.

Just a word on Bakinson, he’s actually got a bit of everything as a player, he puts his foot in, he’s decent in the air, he’s physical, but above all else, he has a great range of passing and craft. But… and there is a but… he gets lost in games when the tempo goes up. He needs to work on that.

Good win though, comfortable, well organised. And above that 2 points a game target.

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14 minutes ago, KrolMong said:

I quite enjoyed todays game for perhaps the wrong reasons.

First half, good. 4-4-2, Bannan and Windass getting space wide and behind the full backs, plenty of 2v1’s in wide areas. Vaulks and Bakinson picking up the second balls, the back four, nice and solid. We should have gone in probably 2-up at half time.

Second half, Bakinson went missing, not so much without the ball, but with it. And we just couldn’t keep the ball. A lot of crosses from Cambridge that either got headed clear or plucked out by Stockdale. Moore did the right thing by changing shape and as soon as Byers came on, all of a sudden, the ball was moving in midfield, and it was finding the forwards feet.

Some really good displays today. They whole back four, defensively were excellent. Vaulks was really good, I like him, he’s probably not as good a ‘footballer’ as Massimo Luongo, but, he’s quite an athlete, quick, strong, good in the air, good engine. Gregory, bizarrely, I thought was poor, as was Smith, but Gregory took his chances well. All of our good stuff came from Windass and Bannan, who both in the first half ran the game. I thought Bakinson first half was good too.

Just a word on Bakinson, he’s actually got a bit of everything as a player, he puts his foot in, he’s decent in the air, he’s physical, but above all else, he has a great range of passing and craft. But… and there is a but… he gets lost in games when the tempo goes up. He needs to work on that.

Good win though, comfortable, well organised. And above that 2 points a game target.

Was like a stroll in the park today 🙌🙌🙌

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Interesting bit is that Moore got angry with the players during the 2nd half for stepping off the tempo and letting Cambridge dominate a bit. At 1 up and doing that he knows we will get punished in some games. So credit for changing that up, but for me we look better with a 3 5 2 system.

It's a good problem to have in many ways, but trying to shoe horn Windass, Smith and Gregory into the starting 11 is OK if we can control possession at the same time and not leave us defensively open.

For all Bannan on the left in the first half worked, it didn't in the 2nd until the switch in the system.

A win is a win for sure, but I think Moore appreciates that to get promotion then these games need less jeopardy. In comparison Plymouth were 3 up at HT down here in MK 

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13 hours ago, KrolMong said:

I quite enjoyed todays game for perhaps the wrong reasons.

First half, good. 4-4-2, Bannan and Windass getting space wide and behind the full backs, plenty of 2v1’s in wide areas. Vaulks and Bakinson picking up the second balls, the back four, nice and solid. We should have gone in probably 2-up at half time.

Second half, Bakinson went missing, not so much without the ball, but with it. And we just couldn’t keep the ball. A lot of crosses from Cambridge that either got headed clear or plucked out by Stockdale. Moore did the right thing by changing shape and as soon as Byers came on, all of a sudden, the ball was moving in midfield, and it was finding the forwards feet.

Some really good displays today. They whole back four, defensively were excellent. Vaulks was really good, I like him, he’s probably not as good a ‘footballer’ as Massimo Luongo, but, he’s quite an athlete, quick, strong, good in the air, good engine. Gregory, bizarrely, I thought was poor, as was Smith, but Gregory took his chances well. All of our good stuff came from Windass and Bannan, who both in the first half ran the game. I thought Bakinson first half was good too.

Just a word on Bakinson, he’s actually got a bit of everything as a player, he puts his foot in, he’s decent in the air, he’s physical, but above all else, he has a great range of passing and craft. But… and there is a but… he gets lost in games when the tempo goes up. He needs to work on that.

Good win though, comfortable, well organised. And above that 2 points a game target.

The point about Gregory being poor is something I had to address, you're absolutely right he was and he admitted it in his post game interview but he got 2 goals and I think this will be the spark he needed,  he's played far better for no reward this season. 

 

We are joint 2nd top scorers in the league and average just shy of 2 goals a game and we haven't hit the gears of the two clubs above us have so bodes well going forward.

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46 minutes ago, mkowlthesexynewversion said:

Interesting bit is that Moore got angry with the players during the 2nd half for stepping off the tempo and letting Cambridge dominate a bit. At 1 up and doing that he knows we will get punished in some games. So credit for changing that up, but for me we look better with a 3 5 2 system.

It's a good problem to have in many ways, but trying to shoe horn Windass, Smith and Gregory into the starting 11 is OK if we can control possession at the same time and not leave us defensively open.

For all Bannan on the left in the first half worked, it didn't in the 2nd until the switch in the system.

A win is a win for sure, but I think Moore appreciates that to get promotion then these games need less jeopardy. In comparison Plymouth were 3 up at HT down here in MK 

That wasn't all Plymouth though, good as they are.  Both teams looked like they were playing with a common goal: for Plymouth to score goals and for MK to concede them.  Strangely enough it worked!  

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39 minutes ago, Reesh said:

The point about Gregory being poor is something I had to address, you're absolutely right he was and he admitted it in his post game interview but he got 2 goals and I think this will be the spark he needed,  he's played far better for no reward this season. 

 

We are joint 2nd top scorers in the league and average just shy of 2 goals a game and we haven't hit the gears of the two clubs above us have so bodes well going forward.

I think Moore knows we have to go up the gears if we want to be top 2. We lost too much ground in the autumn last year so playing ok and winning this time bodes well

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2 minutes ago, mkowlthesexynewversion said:

I think Moore knows we have to go up the gears if we want to be top 2. We lost too much ground in the autumn last year so playing ok and winning this time bodes well

I think it took us til Feb to win 5 away in the league last year

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I thought Cambridge came away with a lot of credit yesterday. They played some nice football and never gave up. Good luck to them for the rest of the season. 

Another pleasing result for us. We’re winning the games we should be winning, we just need to pick up some points against the top 6 sides. 

Great to see Gregory bag a brace. He needed a goal or two. As Reesh says, he’s played a lot better in most games and get little reward for his endeavours, so nice that he was repaid somewhat yesterday. 

It was heartening to see Moore’s changes positively impact the game. We’d been totally ineffective in the second half until he changed the shape. It’s not the first time he’s made game influencing changes this season, though sadly he’s not won those tactical battles in the crunch games. 

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As a side note. I actually quite like the fact the fact that we are switching between and 4 and a 3 at the back. In both a 4 and 3, we’ve looked solid defensively. And Bannan and Windass played well first half wide left and right. If we are going to go with that more, it’s important we have Byers and Adeniran available. 

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6 hours ago, KrolMong said:

As a side note. I actually quite like the fact the fact that we are switching between and 4 and a 3 at the back. In both a 4 and 3, we’ve looked solid defensively. And Bannan and Windass played well first half wide left and right. If we are going to go with that more, it’s important we have Byers and Adeniran available. 

And James.  

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