U’s 1-2 QPR: A New Era

Our Carabao Cup journey is over for another year, but there's plenty to look forward to this season after an encouraging display against Championship opposition.

photo courtesy Cambridge United FC

In the first match report from The Antler we look back at an enjoyable Tuesday night under the Abbey floodlights.

After Saturday’s disappointing defeat at Stockport - albeit a defeat with some slight green shoots beginning to show - the U’s made a number of changes for their first Abbey outing of 2024/25. Out went Reyes, for Jack Stevens, whilst Liam Bennett returned to the 11 and settled all our fears about him being sold before the window shuts. There were debuts for loanee defender Connor O’Riordan and Dan Barton, whilst Brandon Njoku led the line up front.

QPR put out a reasonably strong squad, but I’d be lying if I told you I recognised any of their players, where was the Les Ferdinand, where was the Trevor Sinclair, where was the Adel Taarabt? One familiar face was on the Rangers bench though, in former U’s assistant Kevin Betsy.

We started off okay - Brophy in central midfield shorn of any duty to attempt to shoot and looking like a new signing. If anything, we were creating our own problems, our insistence on knocking the ball around the back three never looking particularly convincing, and QPR always seeming poised to punish any indifference.

That punishment came on the 12th minute, Michael Frey, a big bullying bastard of a player finding himself unmarked twenty yards out, his shot should have been saved by Stevens, but really he should never have been able to get it away in the first place.

QPR looked the better side but it was United who came closest to scoring next, lively youngster Dan Barton building on his impressive 10 minute cameo against Stockport with a curling shot that just grazed the post. The U’s pushed hard for another goal, Barton again coming close before O’Riordan teed up Njoku who drew a fine save from the QPR keeper. 

The visitors had attempts too, and took advantage of a defensive mixup between Andrew and Morrison allowed Smith to get inbetween them and the onrushing Stevens, who for some reason declined to get his hands to the ball with any real sense of urgency and Smith capitalised by rolling the ball into an empty net despite the desperate lunge of O’Riordan.

In real time, it looked like a proper howler from Stevens, and the replay doesn’t make it look much better, but Andrews and Morro need to shoulder a lot of the blame for putting Stevens in that position in the first place. I’m not too convinced by Stevens, who seems like a real confidence player - one who falls apart once that confidence goes. He seemed shellshocked during the preseason game vs Colchester, and it looked like the same again was going to happen last night.

Half-time saw Lavery and Kaikai introduced for Njoku and Kachunga and the impact was immediate. Lavery really looks like a player who knows where the goal is, even though he was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet. Kaikai showed what we know he’s all about, running with the ball, putting pressure on the defenders and creating chances. The only negative against him was a poor yellow card for going to ground in the box when he could have got a shot away.

United pulled one back through the unlikely Paul Digby, finding himself advancing on the box with limited options his best choice was to take a shot which evaded the keeper and got the U’s back into the game.

Further changes came as Okedina replaced O’Riordan and Korey Smith came on for Brophy, who had a great game in the engine room. The second half saw United play some of the best football we’ve seen in years - I’m struggling to think of anyone who had a bad second half at all. Not since the days of Wes Hoolahan have we seen the U’s attack with such intent and create that number of chances. Lavery was unlucky, but I feel that once he gets his first the floodgates will open. His positioning was fantastic, and he’s not afraid to take a shot, something we’ve really struggled with previously.

I don’t want to put too many superlatives down about our second half performance because there’s still a lot of football to be played this season, but Monk seems to have got us playing like a proper, hardworking and footballing team. Previously we’ve been accused of setting up to not lose a game - last night we went out to win the game, and take it to our higher placed opponents, and we were within a whisker of not doing so. 

A word for Dan Barton then - my God what a full debut. I don’t want to put too much pressure on him but he looks like one hell of a player. Always looking to get forward, a great touch, great vision and a decent shot on him - could he be the heir to Hoolahan? Let’s not get carried away, he’s only 19 and only has 100 minutes of first-team football behind him, but on this showing we’ve got something special on our hands. I feel we must mention his replacement Amaru Kaunda too - another youth team graduate, he got instantly busy when he came on and had a couple of decent forays forward, finding himself unlucky not to get a free kick in the dying seconds.

What can we take from this? As much as Saturday wasn’t the greatest U’s performance, this looked totally different. We know we’re still light on numbers, and another centre-forward is an absolute must. If we play like this for the season (which is a big ask, given the intensity) we look like we’ll be comfortable against anyone in the division. We might not have enough about us to stay up, and all it will take is a couple of injuries before we’re in real trouble, but we’re going to put on a hell of a show anyway. If this is Garry Monk’s U’s then I’m here for it.

Man of the Match: It can only be Dan Barton, can’t it? The future’s bright for this one.

Soundtrack of the Match: Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United

The Antler is the new home for independent Match Reports for the 2024/25 season. Feedback, comments and debate are all welcomed. Please subscribe and share.