Cambridge United receive League One reality check in narrow defeat at Accrington Stanley

Cambridge United received a reality check as they suffered their first defeat of the season against Accrington Stanley.

The U’s faced a trip up to Lancashire in their third game of the season, following on from their 1-1 draw against Oxford United and their penalty shootout win against Swindon Town in the Carabao Cup. An away game at the Wham Stadium would arguably provide a tougher test, especially since they’d be without two of their three senior centre-backs.

Injuries to Lloyd Jones and Jubril Okedina meant that Paul Digby would have to drop into defence alongside captain Greg Taylor. Brighton loanee Jensen Weir came into midfield in his place, while Harrison Dunk was also given the nod to start out wide over Shilow Tracey.

Despite Wes Hoolahan’s two glorious chances to give Cambridge the lead, the visitors’ defensive frailty was exposed within the opening 15 minutes of the game. Shaun McConville was given acres of space to break down the left flank, dinking a low cross into the box for Matt Butcher to fire a fierce shot past Dimitar Mitov to give Accrington the lead.

It was déjà vu on the half-hour mark, as McConville was once again given far too much room down the left. Harry Pell was allowed to stroll into the penalty area and head home from close range. Both Dion Charles and Colby Bishop had chances to put the game out of sight, but Mark Bonner’s side were able to stumble into the break without any further damage being done.

Cambridge, once again, made a slow start in the second half, but Accrington were in no mood to continue punishing them. They were presented with glorious chances to claw their way back into the game, however, they were unable to get on the scoresheet until the latter stages of the match.

Hoolahan found Joe Ironside with a simple pass through the middle, allowing the U’s striker to fire a shot straight at James Trafford in the Accrington goal. The young Manchester City loanee made contact with the ball, but it bobbled through his legs and into the net. Cambridge pushed for an equaliser, however left it too late to leave Lancashire with a result.

This was a reality check for Bonner, as his side were well and truly outclassed in the first half. McConville terrorised United’s right flank, and his crosses caused endless problems for Digby and Taylor in defence. His 44 passes was the most of anyone in Accrington’s lineup.

The U’s largely managed to shut out the prolific strike partnership of Charles and Bishop, which their defence deserves a lot of credit for. However, Accrington’s wing-backs were allowed to run riot, and their pinpoint crosses caused all sorts of issues for the visitors.

While Cambridge’s threadbare backline was exposed, their attacking output was equally underwhelming. Bonner has been keen to play a 4-2-3-1 formation, which allows his side to play with more midfielders to combat the increased difficulty of playing in League One. As a result, their lone striker remains incredibly isolated in what is otherwise a fairly attack-minded set up.

Ironside ended up taking the second fewest touches of anyone on the pitch on Saturday afternoon (22), with Dunk the only person who took less. He was substituted after the hour mark, while the striker played for the whole 90 minutes.

Hoolahan, as is often the case, was the orchestrator of everything his side did going forward. He took almost twice the amount of touches than any other Cambridge player managed, while his pass stats are also comfortably higher than anyone on the pitch at the Wham Stadium.

His lack of support ultimately stifles what he can achieve. When playing with Paul Mullin last season, his stats were exceptional. There may be a limit of how much he can do when the other attacking players around him lack the end product to threaten League One sides.

Another mammoth trip to Plymouth Argyle is on the horizon, with the U’s heading to Home Park on Tuesday night. Ryan Lowe’s side will line up with the same 5-3-2 formation as Accrington did, but Bonner told Prost International that he expects a completely different game against the Pilgrims.

“It’s a completely different game, so you can’t compare the two. They play a completely different style, we’ll probably play with changes in the team, maybe a different shape and system. So I don’t think you can compare the two games, it’s too basic to do that. Every game looks very different, and that game will look very different to this one.

“Once we get on the bus and start watching Plymouth and get ready for that one, we’ll try and find the best way of being competitive against a team that make the pitch really big and play some excellent possession football.”

It remains to be seen as to what changes Bonner will be able to make for the trip to Devon, but he’ll certainly be without Okedina as was the case on Saturday. He confirmed that the 20-year-old will be out for “a few weeks”, while Jones will be assessed to see whether or not he is fit to be involved.

The U’s head coach added that the club are keen to add defensive reinforcements before the end of the transfer window, and admitted that a move for another centre-back had fallen through earlier in the window. However, he admitted that “wanting to sign someone and actually signing someone are two completely different things”.

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