I was expecting a big crowd but was surprised to see some supporters in yellow shirts walking past me in the home end about half an hour before kick off. At first I thought they were some Cambridge fans who had sneaked through but when they turned round I realised that they were in fact some Burton fans who had come down to cheer us on! Cambridge had filled approximately two thirds of the away terrace and set up an enormous “United in Endeavour” banner on the side fencing. Before the game kicked off, James Bittner was awarded the supporter’s player of the year award for his goalkeeping heroics during the season.
Cambridge decided to kick off towards their fans and as expected, the early exchanges were all at the far end. Reason had a shot just wide with Bittner at full stretch while Willmott mishit a header over the bar when he should have scored. Salisbury’s first chance came on 17 minutes when Charlie Griffin found some space on the edge of the penalty area. He ran into the box and took a good shot but Danny Potter managed to stop it with his feet and the ball bounced clear.
Two minutes later Bittner showed why he had won the player of the year award. A great cross into the box was met with a bullet header from Rendell but somehow Bittner managed to push it out with a one-handed save. Rendell got his head to the ball first and I thought he was going to score but his follow up header hit the bar and went out of play. A minute later and it was one nil to the visitors. Cambridge were using the wings well and another cross from the left fell at Rendell’s feet, allowing him to pop the ball in from close range.
Cambridge continued to press but Salisbury started to create some chances. Bolland wrestled Griffin to the ground and following some handbags from both teams, both players were booked for the foul and the bad tempered reaction. From the resulting freekick, Griffin put his shot over. On 33 minutes Salisbury pegged Cambridge back with an equaliser. A freekick from a similar spot found Griffin again – this time it was a ball to his head and he managed to direct it over the Cambridge marker and into the net. This delighted the home supporters who had been frustrated by the whistle happy referee and the number of Cambridge pushes, trips and grapples that the officials were missing.
Griffin had another chance before halftime when a deep ball was sent across the box but he was unable to connect with it. It looked like the Whites were going to make it through to halftime with the scores level when Cambridge took a long goal kick towards the left flank where Parkinson had been left unmarked. He took the ball on, took the defence on and his reward was a second goal for Cambridge – an excellent individual effort.
The referee still had one more opportunity to show his ineptitude before bringing the first half to an end. Ademano was knocked to the ground and the game should have been stopped so he could receive treatment for his head injury. The referee saw what had happened but decided to wave play on until Cambridge were about to go through and score. At that point he decided that as Ademano hadn’t moved, he might need some medical attention so blew his whistle. After the treatment, the referee awarded a drop ball and blew the whistle so both sets of fans could unite in giving him some grief about his poor decisions.
The second half was an anti-climax after all the excitement of the first 45 minutes. Salisbury made a couple of changes to try and contain Cambridge and while this tactic worked well, there were few goal scoring opportunities created. Griffin headed the ball over from Salisbury’s best chance while Cambridge wasted a couple of free kicks. Cambridge almost scored a third just before the end but Salisbury were able to clear the ball off the line before it went over.
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