Cambridge Utd 1 Harriers 2
Date: 18-02-11
Venue: Abbey Stadium
att: 1869
away fans: 92
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Last minute saviour Jamille Matt gives the Harriers the win
Report by Philip Lench
An incredible final ten minutes of this televised game from Cambridge saw the home side grabbing a well crafted equalizer after being behind for most of the game but then super sub Jamille Matt, only on the pitch for a matter of minutes, popped up to head home from a corner in the dying seconds of the game. The three points earned puts us back into the play off places after a brief sojourn there in November.
The game started somewhat in a bad tempered mood that should have seen an early dismissal for Utd's Luke Berry after he scythed down the Harriers captain, Keith Briggs, two footedly but got away with it totally after the referee, a Mr Carl BERRY, ignored the seriousness of the offence and didn't even give him a yellow card. Minutes later Adam Marriott carried out a similar challenge on Lee Vaughan and again the lenient referee ignored the fact that it was a red card offence and issued a measly yellow.
Instead of ignoring what was going down and, for reasons know only to themselves, we started to mete out the same treatment as Cambridge were giving us and in quick succession Mark Albrighton and Tom Shaw went into the refs notebook. The tackles were no worse than before but the ref obviously thought he'd better crack down before he lost it.
We started the game unchanged from last Saturdays home win against Altrincham with Sean Canham starting again for us following his loan to us from Hereford Utd. Fans favourite Matty Blair was on the bench again although he had been expected to start. It was Canham that opened the scoring for us with a well taken goal, from a Chris McPhee flick on, that took a slight deflection to fool the Cambridge keeper Simon Brown.
Within seconds of the re-start Michael Briscoe found his name in the book after bringing down Adam Marriott just outside the box. The free kick, thankfully, came to nothing.
Cambridge had been the better team in the first half but their shooting was weak and wayward. They had a couple of new strikers in the side in an effort to improve their chances of avoiding relegation but they didn't seem to be up to much.
The second period was just as scrappy as the first 45 minutes and again the Harriers were slow out of the traps. We hadn't changed our tactics either and Lee Vaughan found his name in the book only minutes in for a late tackle on Marriott.
For long spells of this half it was a battle between two scrappy looking teams and it needed someone out there to take charge of the game. For us it needed someone to actually run at Cambridge and force them into errors at the back. That man was Matty Blair and he arrived on the scene on the hour mark in place of Briggs who was now limping badly.
Cambridge followed suit with a flurry of changes by bringing on Jordan Patrick in place of Conal Platt and then soon after Shaun Jeffers, on loan from Coventry, replaced Dan Walker. In between that we had a good chance from Chris McPhee to increase the lead but his shot went across the face of goal and out for a goal kick.
There was still no real improvement in the game but that was all about to change. Time was running down and it looked like the Harriers would hold on to what they had, that solitary Canham goal, but then Utd were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box after McPhee bought down Marriott.
The victim stepped up and waited while Danny Lewis arranged his wall but not enough. Marriott saw the tiniest of gaps and curled the ball around the wall and beyond the diving Lewis.
It was a crushing blow to the Harriers but we hadn't reckoned with Jamille Matt who had come on no more than two minutes earlier for Canham. We had managed to gain a last second corner that was taken short by Callum Gittings to Matty Blair. Blair then played it on to Matt who deflected the ball with his head into the back of the net with the slightest bit of help from the Cambridge keeper.
What a way to end the game. A game that had been poor fare for the travelling fans and those watching it on the big screen at Aggborough.
Hopefully Fleetwood will fail to remake the ground they've lost on us tonight by losing at Grimsby tomorrow. Even then we have some tough games coming up starting on Tuesday at Darlington.
Can we go there and get another three points and stay where we deserve to be? You bet we can.
Goal for Cambridge: Marriott 90
Goals for Harriers: Canham 43, Matt 92
The Harriers Online MotM is:
Danny Lewis
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Latest table and stats here
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Cambridge Utd |
subs |
cards |
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Harriers |
subs |
cards |
Brown |
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Lewis |
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Roberts |
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Vaughan |
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Jennings |
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Williams |
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Coulson |
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Briscoe |
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Saah |
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Shaw |
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Wellard |
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Albrighton |
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Platt |
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N Wright |
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Berry |
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Briggs |
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D Wright |
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Canham |
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Marriott |
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McPhee |
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Walker |
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Byrne |
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SUBS: |
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SUBS: |
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Naisbitt |
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Stevens |
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Partridge |
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Gittings |
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Patrick |
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Matt |
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Jeffers |
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Sharpe |
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Hughes |
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Blair |
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REFEREE:
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Mr C Berry
Surrey
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