Cambridge Utd v BOLTON match thread

I think he explained the reasons for not picking Collins rioch and to be fair I do agree with him. The one I couldn’t understand was leaving Bod out completely, not even on the bench. Again Evatt has his reasons and obviously with Baxter’s wrist jury it was sensible to have a keeper on the bench. For me that should always be the case but I can see the reason Evatt doesn’t agree and so far he’s been right. As for the playing out from the back, I don’t have a problem with the principle but as you say, given the conditions some of the passes were just crazy, especially the Sheehan one, what on earth was Baxter thinking? Again you see, that’s not the system itself just the bad implementation by the players. Still it was a good night overall and in terms of midweek spots we do have a few spare in April if we can’t get this one played before.

Nine minutes. For me some really encouraging positives within them-

1. Ogbeta was just great on the left flank, showing pace, skill on the ball and outside overlap and the ability to cut in with an eye for goal. Iredale and Ashworth don't have those capabilities.

2. The return of Jones and straightaway right side overlaps and faster counter attacks. 1 and 2 together meant we had a progressive pacy threat on both flanks.

3. Toal on the left of centre. He has struggled on the right and been kicking long.

4 Yes caught in possession but even in the wet we passed to feet and if Evatt sees lost possession v more 2v1s and counters, in these 9 mins his strategy was 3:1 up.

It is a good strategy and far better than watching Mills and Ream, Wheater and Beavers and various goalkeepers booting every ball and losing possession almost all the time.

Big Sam's teams could do both and Okocha was great at switching play with long balls as were Campo, Hierro , Speed, Djorkaeff- but they were a class ( several classes ) better players.

There are aspects of IE'sapproach that are volatile and controlling. We need to make better choices to context sometimes and need more infield leadership.

There were in 9 mins in my opinion some real positives.. Even Victor looked forceful - if only we could get more from him.

Would like to think free coach travel for those fans who went and want to go again?

Is it a reasonable question to ask, would you rather be in Portsmouths position, top of the league with points in the bag, or a chasing side with games in hand, enough to take you to the top??

Good question rioch and one that has been asked many times I’m sure. It’s the old bird in the bush scenario and obviously you’d always rather have the guarantee of points in the bag so I suppose that’s the answer to your question but other factors can sometimes affect things. The teams you have to play, injuries and suspensions and of course how many points you’re behind. In our case I’d say I’m more than happy with our situation and think we will benefit from our games in hand. Only time will tell obviously and we do have some difficult opposition to face but then it’s equally difficult for them too and they will also be playing each other. It’s in our own hands so since at the end of the season we’ll all have played the same number of games it’s probably irrelevant when we play them?