Pringle taken off, was he having a quiet game or picked up a knock? Did Smith and Morris swap wings, or did Jonny play wide left? I presume Buxton for Caprice was an acceptance by Micky of the draw, bringing on a more defensive full back? How did Zoum perform on his return to the first team?
I will try and deal with all of those.
This was a hard earned point against tenacious opposition. I thought we played the better football throughout the game, but we did not really get control of the match until the second half. In the first period a lot of our passing moves broke down due to Cambridge's constant harrying and chasing when we were in possession. We did get into good positions in the wide areas on several occasions, but struggled to get men into the box and create genuine chances, albeit Norwood was clean through on goal midway through the half but was denied by a brilliant last-ditch tackle by a defender. At the other end of the pitch, the hosts strong, pacy attackers were a constant nuisance and Cambridge generally looked the more dangerous of the two sides, with Scotty called upon to make a couple of good saves. All of that said, we generally defended well and stood up to the physical challenge.
After half time Cambridge fell off the pace a bit, our passing improved, and we began to dominate. We had several periods of concerted pressure but the final pass or finish was not quite there, the best chance again falling to Nors after a brilliant through ball by Perkins.
Individually, I thought Perkins and McCullough were excellent once again and had fantastic workrate. I was concerned about Zoum before kick off, but fortunately he was excellent defensively and I just hope today's performance was not a one off from him. It was not really a game that suited Ben Pringle: with the physicality and intensity of the match he was on the periphery at times, albeit he still showed some lovely touches on occasions. Jennings had a bit of a mare in the first half, but improved massively after half time. For men of the match, I could not really look beyond both centre halves and Scott Davies, all of whom had excellent games despite taking a physical battering at times. Smith played on the right hand side when he came on; I am unsure why Caprice was taken off, unless he had picked up a knock.
Cambridge were greatly improved on the side we played earlier in the season, and I think this was a good result. However, if we are serious about challenging for the play offs, we surely have to win our game in hand against a floundering Port Vale side on Tuesday.
Final word goes to the SWA, who turned up in incredible numbers again today (629).