Cambridge United review an agonising defeat at the hands of Ipswich Town in their first home Premier League game of the season.
It was a cruel fate for the home side who had controlled the game for long periods but without the goals to show for it.
An explosive first 15 minutes saw the U’s take the FA Premier League South East Diviison 1 game to the away side and only 12 minutes had been played when Cambridge deservedly opened the scoring. Nuala Wayne had already put two vicious crosses into the box from the left that had caused the Ipswich defence problems, but this time she was the recipient of a pinpoint through ball from Laura Mills after a flowing move and she finished calmly past the keeper from 12 yards.
It was almost 2-0 moments later after a defence splitting pass from Laura Baker found Mills’ run into the box and her placed shot rolled millimetres past the far post. Ipswich were struggling to contain the pace at which United were attacking and Becky Taylor was inches away from opening her league account with a curling shot from outside the box.
There were to be further chances for the hosts as Ipswich didn’t register a single shot on target in the first half. Another excellent cross from Wayne just evaded Lucy Du Plooy at the far post, who couldn’t quite touch home to score against her former club and then Baker struck a sweet drive just over the bar after a swift counter attack.
Cambridge United pictured at the Abbey Stadium.
It was to be more of the same after the half time break as the U’s looked for the second goal that could seal the win. Another fantastic counter attacking break involving Mills and Wayne found Taylor’s run and her shot was just off target and then Ipswich goalkeeper Bird instinctively stuck out an arm to divert Taylor’s volley wide after Wayne’s through ball. Some heroic defending then saw Taylor’s header cleared off the line with Bird beaten after Du Plooy’s corner. Still the goal wouldn’t come and the away side were living on the edge, seeing further efforts from Wayne who saw her shot on the turn saved low down and Mills who struck inches over the bar.
But to Town’s credit, they made Cambridge pay for being unable to kill off the game and some wayward possession saw them counter-attack quickly and take advantage of an out of balance shape when Olivia Dixon scored from just inside the area with less than 10 minutes left. With their tails up and the momentum shifted, disaster was to strike in injury time. Ipswich had already hit the woodwork with a header from a set piece as further warning, but then an inability to clear lines properly saw Town midfielder Molly Hall get on the ball and her opportunistic effort from long range dipped just below Verity Crook’s crossbar.
It was a harsh piece of luck for home side and their performance did not warrant a defeat but no-one could argue that the game should have been out of sight of Ipswich as early as half time.
Cambridge Manager Steve Edwards was quick to try and look at the positives but conceded that his side need to learn from the errors that cost them:
“It’s a really hard defeat to take as I asked for a reaction from the players after last week’s defeat at Norwich and they gave me a very pleasing performance both from a defensive and attacking point of view. But if you don’t score goals in games while you’re enjoying long spells of dominance then there’s always a chance it can come back to haunt you as it did today.
“We were a little bit more wasteful in possession as the game wore on and we’d attacked with such gusto that some tiredness crept in which resulted in a few lapses of concentrations but another day we’d be 3 or 4 goals ahead and would have been able to shut up shop a little more.
“This is a very unforgiving league and we need to harden up from experiences like these and use them to improve from. We’re not quite where we want to be yet but this game was a big leap in the right direction. We’ll pick ourselves up and continue to work on the positives that we showed in the match.”
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