20/10/21: Men’s Blues 2-1 Leicester 1

This season’s Blues’ squad had their first post-match rendition of Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again today after a hearty win in their opening BUCS game of the season against a robust Leicester side. Leicester started the game on the front foot, keen to seize and early lead, but the Ginger Neuer stood firm to help the Blues weather a nervy first fifteen. We soon found our feet in the game, and normal service was resumed; Ben Adam began spraying pings all over the pitch, Fortina had his marker on toast, and Louis ‘the puppeteer’ Roberts had started to pull the strings in centre mid. The game remained firmly in the balance and could have swung away from The Blues, a last ditch Ben Adam tackle may have been deemed by some by referees as denying a goalscoring opportunity, and therefore a red card, but Ben’s charm and good looks managed to convince the ref to keep him on the pitch. After more great work from Tim between the sticks and some nice build up play, The Blues were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box. Fortina swung in a peach of a cross, and Matt Harris was on the end of it to SMASH in a screamer past the helpless Leicester keeper. 1-0 to the Blues. Leicester, however rallied well and, after a concerted period of pressure (and backchat to the ref), won a free-kick on the edge of the box. A neat cross and a tidy finish left us scratching our heads as we went in at the interval level pegging. 1-1. The Blues regrouped well, and started the second half strongly, we were very nearly rewarded for our endeavour within a few minutes, when Louie played an inch perfect ball to Pughy, putting George one-on-one, but a great save from the Leicester number one denied our number nine. We began to dominate the game at this point, Brody and Cai looking increasingly dangerous, and marauding runs from the dangerous partnership of Sonny and Fortina down the CUAFC right left Leicester’s left back up a creek without a paddle, eventually leading to a well worked goal on the 60th minute. Hard tackling from Louie in the midfield started the move before Matt Harris and Cai linked up to feed the ball to Fortina, Sonny and Fortina combined again before slotting in Cai, who swept the ball beyond the Leicester keeper with a really tidy finish to put us 2-1 up. With half an hour left, the Blues began making their substitutions, the evergreen Paddy worked well alongside Reece in tightening up the midfield, Jed and Lumi provided a constant threat and Matt Hawthorne worked tirelessly. At about the 75 minute mark, Leicester found themselves reduced to ten men after a scything challenge prevented a clear goal scoring opportunity, seen as a second bookable offence by the referee. Leicester, however remained spirited, and bombarded the Blues’ box with cross after cross, Lambo, and Braggy seemed to deal with absolutely every ball, and the Blues very nearly made sure of all three points, but Reece couldn’t quite convert (fine ££) a well guided strike to send the bench and Blatchy into delirium. Cambridge hearts were in their mouths when Leicester’s skipper found himself bearing down on Tim’s goal in the last minute, but an heroic save shut out Leicester and gave the blues all three points, scenes of jubilation were seen both in the chaining rooms and in Hawks that evening as the Blues opened their BUCS campaign in style. MoTM, for a second week on the trot goes to Timmy, no goals scored this week, but a helluva lot kept out.