Cambridge City view on yesterdays game

Cambridge City had to settle for a point against lowly Redditch on a damp afternoon at the newly named Pro-Edge stadium.

With a 3-week break since the last game at Hemel Hempstead, it meant that key personnel in the City squad had the time to recover from injuries. As such, Joey Abbs was restored to the starting line-up but although David Prada was fit he had to settle for a place on the bench. Meanwhile, new signing Mitchell Bryant missed the game through suspension.

Chances were few and far between in the opening exchanges of the match. The best City could muster was on 7 minutes when a long-range speculative effort from Adie Cambridge cleared the Redditch crossbar. Meanwhile, Luke Benbow sent in a teasing curling cross that almost caused difficulty for Zac Barrett, but the City keeper still managed a clean take to avert any danger.

But Redditch were causing City problems and on 11 minutes they fired a warning shot as Lee Osborne was allowed space and sent in a shot that cleared Barrett’s post.

With City struggling to gain any kind of momentum in the match, it was Redditch who drew first blood on 17 minutes. Christopher Russell capitalised on a poor Zac Barrett clearance and with the City defence static he found himself on-side in the penalty area. With Barrett advancing, Russell produced a fine finish to lob the City goalkeeper and put this side in front.

It was the same player who had a great chance on 31 minutes when he latched onto a clearance from defence and found himself with an opportunity to put his side further in front, but under pressure from Lee Chaffey he saw his effort narrowly clear the bar.

The chances kept coming for Redditch, and on 37 minutes the visitors should have made it count when Russell squared a pass to Joey Halsall which was somehow scrambled away by the City defence.

That perhaps was a wake up call for the Lilywhites as a minute later a cross from Adie Cambridge found Dave Theobald who had a header that finally drew the Redditch keeper Dean Coleman into action who saved low to his left.

City went into the interval lucky to still be only a goal down, and started the second half looking to get in the ascendancy and restore parity. Danny Kelly went close four minutes after the break when his shot went wide of the post.

But it was perhaps the substitutions made by Gary Roberts on 62 minutes that kick-started City into action. Neil Midgley replaced the ineffective Craig Hammond and David Prada came on for Joey Abbs to add some much needed creativity in midfield.

But it was Danny Kelly who was involved in City’s next move of the match as he played in Adie Cambridge who had an effort that was blocked for a corner. From the resulting kick Dave Theobald saw his effort go wide of the upright.

By now City were at long last getting the upper hand and on 68 minutes their efforts were rewarded. The ball fell to David Prada outside of the box. The Spaniard took a shot through a crowd of players, and Lee Chaffey applied the deftest of touches on the goal line to bring City back onto level terms

As the match entered the last 20 minutes, City kept applying the pressure that they had found in the second half, but the Redditch defence were holding firm. However, the visitors were lucky on two occasions not to see City take the lead. First on 84 minutes when Robbie Nightingale was played in, and had a good opportunity but saw his shot saved by Coleman. Then as the match approached stoppage time, substitute Neil Midgley could have done better when he met a cross from the right. The city striker saw his headed effort go wide of the goal when he maybe should have hit the target.

Those efforts for the home side were in dispersed with no more than half chances by the visitors, with possibly the best one falling to Benbow who was unlucky not to do better with a deflected shot as the match entered the latter stages.

But both sides had to settle for a point in the end. City will consider this maybe to be two points dropped in their quest to stay in touch with leaders Brackley, but hopefully the spirited last 20 minutes of the match will provide a perfect platform for the Lilywhites to get back to winning ways against Hitchin at the Pro-Edge stadium on Tuesday night.

being at the game yesterday i think that is a pretty good reflection on the game and not at all biased.i would have settled for a draw before kickoff.chris russell who scored the goal looks a good lively player and i think will be a good requistion for us and give us differant options with the 3 forwards that we now have.

That's a great point. As we said at the Earlswood game our approach play in the final third has changed with Billy and Luke up there. There were collective sighs against Earlswood when we crossed the ball into the box..with Jimmy in there that's ok ( now and again) but we've adapted really quickly to playing with Luke and Billy up there.
How on earth we signed a goalscorer ( Billy) with the management team having no contacts I do not know.

Another top notch result against a very well resourced team at the top of the Division.
From all accounts, we played extremely well 1st half and could have been 2 or 3 goals up at the break.
Our defence will keep us in the league....we need to put these perfromances in against the teams around us now!

Onwards & upwards.

I wouldn't get to carried away as it was 1 point and we are 3 points above Arseley.

Our record against sides in the relegation mix is horrendous, losing to Ciro twice, Swindon Supermarine, Arseley etc.

I would expect the management of any side at this level to know all about good players at the levels below as well as the ones above. The question to be asked is why did it take them so long to sign Chris Russell? He was scoring goals for Tividale all season.

Until Mr Hyde signs 2 decent permanent midfielders I am not convinced we will stay up. Here lies the problem if you ask me what with this constant loan signings of midfielders which I am not a fan with. No stability and is like Russian Roulette. Until we can start stringing some results together we are in a very precarious position and we have some difficult games against Chesham, Stourbridge, AFC Totton, Chippenham, Oxford, Barwell, Hitchin which mean we have to beat the likes of Swindon Supermarine, Bashley & Evesham and our record is shocking against these lower placed sides.

Has Jimmy Deabill left or is he injured?

Leethall wrote: The question to be asked is why did it take them so long to sign Chris Russell? He was scoring goals for Tividale all season.

Because people like you, Lee, come on here and suggest certain players, instead of going to Chris or Graham or whoever and telling them that you think this guy's worth a look at because you've seen him play a few times...

So yeah, it's all your fault.

Seriously though, you have a greater player knowledge than most here, why not approach the club to do a bit of scouting at the tin potteries of nonleague football? That is, afterall what you spend most your weekends doing right?

rawlings09 wrote:

Leethall wrote: The question to be asked is why did it take them so long to sign Chris Russell? He was scoring goals for Tividale all season.

Because people like you, Lee, come on here and suggest certain players, instead of going to Chris or Graham or whoever and telling them that you think this guy's worth a look at because you've seen him play a few times...

So yeah, it's all your fault.

Seriously though, you have a greater player knowledge than most here, why not approach the club to do a bit of scouting at the tin potteries of nonleague football? That is, afterall what you spend most your weekends doing right?

Rawlings my friend, I believe the club already have a scout

If asked I would do so but a football club should not be expecting an individual to be going to a Chairman and Manager to offer to scout potential signings! My view is generally an unbiased one of players who have potential and are worth a look, management teams of clubs go out and watch games and players so there should be no need for the likes of me as that is part of the job.

I enjoy watching various games and different teams around the local area, there are plenty of good players who could easily make the step up to the league we play in. I would rather see us sign good players on a permanent basis rather than these loan signings from Walsall

Anyway the best thing ATM is that Tommy Warmer has been benched

talking about loan signings i beleave we have only one at the moment and that is stu hendrie and the situation with jim deabil is that he was in hospital saturday having x ray on his injured foot so yes he is still a reds player.

alottmentender wrote:talking about loan signings i beleave we have only one at the moment and that is stu hendrie.

Has Luke left the Mighty Moors then

Great result especialy after their result last night.

Save us all from love and hope..........

Mrs Moor wrote:

alottmentender wrote:talking about loan signings i beleave we have only one at the moment and that is stu hendrie.

Has Luke left the Mighty Moors then

Great result especialy after their result last night.

Save us all from love and hope..........

Luke Benbow is dual registered we only have ONE loan player which is Stuart Hendrie from Hinkley.

RUFC wrote:

Mrs Moor wrote:

alottmentender wrote:talking about loan signings i beleave we have only one at the moment and that is stu hendrie.

Has Luke left the Mighty Moors then

Great result especialy after their result last night.

Save us all from love and hope..........

Luke Benbow is dual registered we only have ONE loan player which is Stuart Hendrie from Hinkley.

That's not what it says on one of your web sites ..................

Hyde continued to reshape his squad last week, as striker Tom Berwick left the club. However, he brought in Adkins and former Birmingham City youth team prospect Luke Benbow on-loan from Solihull Moors.

Thanks for the update RUFC he would not have featured for us anyway you signed him from Highgate where he was out on loan playing in the Alliance, sorry i mean't to say dual registered at Highgate not on loan at Highgate

So how many dual registered players do you have

with respect, what relevance has your post got to the original post?

Mrs Moor wrote:

alottmentender wrote:talking about loan signings i beleave we have only one at the moment and that is stu hendrie.

Has Luke left the Mighty Moors then

Great result especialy after their result last night.

Save us all from love and hope..........

Mrs Moor wrote:

alottmentender wrote:talking about loan signings i beleave we have only one at the moment and that is stu hendrie.

Has Luke left the Mighty Moors then

Great result especialy after their result last night.

Save us all from love and hope..........

I see Solihoof De Driving Range had a good result last night against Rock Bottom Clint Eastwood who have now taken 4 points off you !