Cambridge United shatter Burton Albion’s 100% record in shock win at The Abbey

Cambridge United provided one of the shocks of the weekend in the EFL by beating in-form Burton Albion 3-0.

The U’s were yet to pick up a win since making their return to League One, drawing against Oxford United and losing to Accrington Stanley before earning a point away at Plymouth Argyle. An injury to Greg Taylor left them with one fit centre-back for the visit of Burton, who had won all three of their opening league games before heading to The Abbey.

On Friday afternoon, a report in West London Sport claimed that Conor Masterson was set to join Cambridge on loan, with the signing officially announced at midday on Saturday. Just two hours later, he was named in the starting lineup to face the Brewers.

Despite consecutive wins against the bookies’ pre-season promotion favourites, Sunderland and Ipswich Town, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s side struggled to carve out chances in the first half. That being said, the U’s looked similarly blunt up top before the break but kept themselves in the game when they were widely tipped to be beaten.

A goal was needed to open up the game, and it took a bit of luck for it to finally happen. Wes Hoolahan’s combination with Sam Smith down the left flank allowed the latter to find space and to take a shot from the edge of the area. It took a wicked deflection, looping over Ben Garratt and ending up in the back of the net.

If the opener was fortuitous, what happened next was on a whole other level. Tom Hamer turned Hoolahan’s cross into his own net just over midway through the second half and then did the same from George Williams’ ball into the box just six minutes later.

Burton had no response, and Cambridge ran out as winners in impressive fashion.

Of course, there was a fortunate nature to this win. After all, Hamer’s brace of own goals means that only Joe Ironside has scored more goals for Cambridge this season than the Burton left-back.

However, Mark Bonner’s game plan worked to perfection and his side undoubtedly earned the three points on Saturday afternoon. This stemmed from his decision to start with two strikers for the first time since winning promotion from League Two last season.

Speaking to Prost International, the U’s head coach explained his decision to play a 4-4-2 formation against the Brewers.

“We thought that it could be a real good threat for us in attacking positions to force the game and get at them. They’ve played against teams that play in front of them, and they’re excellent at pressing and getting behind the ball. So we didn’t want to give them a chance to do that.

“When they get into the deep third of the pitch, they go into a back six, so you need to make sure you’ve got threats in the box to go and play against them. We wanted it to be a game that we felt we could really take to them and threaten, and they didn’t have an overload in midfield that they were going to play through because they’re a fairly direct team themselves.

“I think the key bit is in the four games we’ve seen, we can play in lots of different ways, and we’ll have to a number of times this season.”

While Hoolahan won the fan’s Man of the Match vote, goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov took the plaudits for his incredible performance. The Bulgarian made eight saves, including an astonishing stop to deny Aaron Amadi-Holloway from point-blank range.

One player who went under the radar was Williams, who’s received harsh criticism by some of the U’s faithful so far this season. The right-back isn’t an identical replacement for Kyle Knoyle, who earned a move to Doncaster Rovers after a string of impressive performances in Cambridge’s promotion-winning campaign.

Granted, he doesn’t offer the same swashbuckling attacking threat that Knoyle did, but Williams’ stats against Burton highlighted him as one of the standout performers. In fact, nobody on the pitch took more touches or made more passes than he did. Two statistics that are usually dominated by Hoolahan.

Above all, his pass map shows a willingness to become a more attacking full-back. Perhaps the change of formation has allowed him the freedom to move into more advanced areas, especially playing behind James Brophy, who has spent much of his career playing as a left-back.

That cover not only allows Williams to move further up the flank but also allows him to drift into central areas, which is reflected in both his pass and touch maps. This makes sense given the fact that the 28-year-old played as a centre-back in a five-man defence at Bristol Rovers.

Cambridge play with an intense press, especially when the opposition have the ball in their own defensive third. They’ve also adopted a counter-pressing technique when their opponent wins the ball high up the pitch, especially in wide areas. Williams and Brophy combined well to do this on the right, and the latter stages even saw Hoolahan pressing to win the ball back on the left flank despite being 3-0 up.

After the game, Bonner explained that Masterson had praised the team spirit in the dressing room and the fact that he found it so easy to settle into the squad after such a short period of time. That togetherness is what got the U’s promoted in the first place, and will go a long way in securing safety this season if they can steer clear of the bottom four.

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