I went to the game and it wasn't great. We had plenty of possession but didn't do much with it and created very little. Lee and Mayuka were both pretty poor, although had little service. There wasn't much urgency for a game that we needed to win. Cropper made some good saves, but Man Utd should have stuck some of their chances away. In the end we should have won it but the keeper made a good save for Lee's second penalty. Lee didn't look fit at all and wasn't the live wire that he was last season but I'm sure he has been injury free for months now? Got to see Man Utd £7.5 million man Bebe...who looked pretty poor when he came on. It didn't have much of an impact on the game but their players seemed much taller and bigger built then ours. They also take after the first team and whinge whinge whinge at the ref over every decision, typical Utd. Oh and there were a lot of Man Utd fans there but funnily enough I didn't hear one Mancunian accent all evening...
Went to the game. Reasonable performance against a powerful Man Utd team - their players were mostly physically larger than ours. Their no. 10 was a gobby dirty sod who should have been sent off. We should have won but Lee missed the 2nd penalty, when the Utd player was sent off for hand ball - Lee scored the first pen ! Lee however looked unfit to me and much slower than when i saw him play for the first team last season briefly. Mayuka looked much fitter and sharper, but should have scored in the 1st minute when through 1 on 1 with the goalie. I dont know all of our younger players and with no program to refer to it was difficult to work out who was who apart from JWP, Reeves, Chambers, etc. Cropper made some good saves, especially in the 1st half when Utd were right on top. Our centre back with a beard played well, but unsure of his name though ? 1 -1 final score so great pity that Lee ballsed up the 2nd pen. Quite a few there, all in the Itchen - long queues at half time to get a bovril !!
If anyone cares (yes I know), the U21's last group game is against Newcastle next Monday at Eastleigh FC (1900 ko). They need to win and other results to go their way to finish in the top three and qualify for the elite stage. Not that it really matters.
Were you reffing tonight Qwerty? Being at Eastleigh does that mean it's another one open to supporters?
Nope the refs for the U21 leagues come out of the Conference I think (so not Shirley's finest). I haven't seen anywhere that says it definitely is but I'm pretty confident, there are supposed to be two games played in front of supporters and we've only had one so far, the Spurs game was at St Mary's but got postponed and later played at Staplewood. Originally next week's game was at St Mary's as well but has been moved to Eastleigh.
pretty dumb not having names on the shirts, the right back looked ok, guess Turnbull and Stephens were playing CB, Lee really looked off the pace but as someone else said lousy service, think Mayuka is better on the wing not as a lone striker
