18/02/26 Men’s Blues 4-1 Lincoln 1s
Men’s Blues Match Report
CUAFC 4-1 Lincoln
Goals: DBO, 2x Cowan (if i’m being generous), Benji
After a sensational eat fest against Nottingham last week, the Blues were hungry to do the same to Lincoln, who had failed to get a single point in the last 4 games. Once AK had strapped his shoulder, some tunes had been played and the 5 Ultras (Will Stubbs included) had taken their seats, the game was set to begin.
The Blues started on the front foot, with a gegenpress that Klopp would admire, and kept Lincoln in their half for the opening 5 minutes. The Baltic conditions meant that the ball was holding up in the air, so Blatchy recommended the boys keep the long balls to the minimum. However, those orders were not followed. After a few clips in behind, plus some good pressing from Musie, Benj-dawg found himself just inside the box, before he was taken out by a Lincoln defender in no mans land. DBO stepped up and placed a powerful penalty to the right, that the goalies poppadom hands couldn’t deny. 1-0 Blues. At some point in the first half, Manthey managed to find himself at the end of a Lincoln elbow, giving him a nasty shiner that would force him off at the end of the half. “You should’ve seen the other guy” said AK. Cowan was controlling the tempo nicely in the midfield, as unc always does, and found himself in a bit of space just outside the right hand side of the box. From here, I’m not sure if he meant to cross it, pass it or have a shot. However, the ball ended up nicely in the back of the net, following a deflection, giving us an extension of our deserved lead. The shot was defo off target, but we’ll give Cowan the goal as he looks to surge up the Tier 2 top scorers list. From corners, we were deadly, using the short corner meta to confundle the Lincoln defenders. Jesse narrowly missed a few cracking efforts, whilst DBO put in some drilled crosses that sadly weren’t converted. At one point, the Lincoln no9 told me this was a training game for us. Couldn’t argue with that. The Lincoln playing out of the back tactic was long gone as they began to shell long balls straight onto Craddocks magnet of a head. Towards the end of the half, combination of magic from the Hughes Hall academy meant a composed Benji finish would take us into the break.
The second half saw Teni replace the wounded Manthey, and a continuation of the dominance of the Blues. After successive corners, Dalley hit a floated volley into the box, which the Lincoln GK couldn’t deal with, giving Cowan a nice tap in to secure him a deserved brace. Musie had rotated to the RWB position at this point and began mentally and physically violating their left back. Eventually, their left back couldn’t handle the Musie Magic, and had no other options but to take him out, ending his tenure on the right hand side. Later in the half, the Lincoln striker finally touched the ball, probably his first of the game, and secured his team a consolation goal. Tragic for the back line, considering our clean sheet was ruined for the second week on the bounce. That was not to say we didn’t respond, as our combined attack and midfield scorched their back line. With a combined xG reaching double digits, out attack and midfield put on an assertive performance that received praise from Blatchy at the end.
With the final whistle blown, the Blues came away with a cracking result that we would take us into the title decider at the end of the season. Beaten at (H) already, we will look to follow the same result at UEA (A) in 2 weeks time. For now, all eyes on Super Sunday, where all 4 CUAFC teams will be looking to munch on Oxf*rd.
UTFB, UTFCUAFC
