One Game at a Time – Imps 6-0 Cambridge

City were victorious again on Tuesday night, with an exceptional 6-0 victory against Garry Monk’s Cambridge United.

Michael Skubala made a few changes to the side that beat Barnsley 5-1 on Saturday. Lukas Jensen started in goal behind an unchanged back three of Sean Roughan, Paudie O’Connor and Alex Mitchell. Lasse Sorensen and Reeco Hackett provided the width as they continued as wing-backs on either side. Jack Moylan came into the team from the start after scoring two goals from the bench against Barnsley, with Danny Mandroiu and Ethan Erhahon alongside him. Ben House and Joe Taylor provided the threat in attack.

There was a boost on the bench as Ted Bishop returned after missing the Barnsley trip with injury. Despite being without Conor McGrandles, Ethan Hamilton, Tyler Walker, Lewis Montsma and Freddie Draper, we still looked strong. That’s a massive positive, especially with something still to challenge for this season.

6-0 is a statement, it’s even bigger than Saturday’s result in my opinion. 5-1 away at a team sitting in the top four is a massive win but for us to beat a team like Cambridge in similar fashion just shows the progress we’ve made under Skubala. We’ve never had problems battling with the big teams – we may have never beaten one comprehensively under Mark Kennedy but we have beaten them. What we failed to do under Kennedy and even Michael Appleton to an extent, was beat ‘the teams we should be beating’. I’m not a fan of that term, but if you’re a side with ambitions of the play-offs in this division, you can’t be dropping points to a team five points outside the bottom four. 

Tuesday did present it’s challenges though. It was Gary Monk’s second game in charge, we didn’t know what reaction the team were going to give the new manager, it could’ve been similar to what we got against Charlton in the second half. They were also going to come with an obvious game plan, but one we’ve struggled against in the past. That’s the past though – we are in the present with an attacking coach that’s in-tune tactically.

That’s no disrespect to our previous head coaches either. Kennedy achieved an 11th place finish last season with a squad that was probably not good enough for top half, especially in the first half of the campaign but he fell short when he failed to adapt a defensive style for a more brave approach once we got good attacking players through the door. Appleton is a clever tactician and you’ll never change my mind on that. We played some of the best football I’ve seen at Sincil Bank under him, but his pitfall was his inability to be flexible. He had a style and he stuck with it. That’s dangerous in modern football – just look at Des Buckingham’s Oxford side at the moment. 

Skubala is considerably less experienced than Kennedy and Appleton, yet he appears to not have the weaknesses they had. Kennedy was inexperienced when he came in but he had a lot of first-team coaching pedigree behind him, and Appleton was a promotion winner with Oxford. I’m not trying to take anything away from Skubala, because he’s achieved so much in a career that’s taken a much different path than almost everyone in the game, but his ability as a coach and as a tactician is incredible. We’ve found ourselves a gem. He knows how to change things if needed, and in the last few months, we’ve reaped the rewards from not only his appointment but the impact that difficult period we had when he first came in. 

I don’t think Cambridge have changed much since last season. They are still a solid League One side, that should really be in this division next season. When we played them at home last season, we drew 0-0 with them and it was easily one of the worst home games we’ve played in a long time. We lacked attacking threat, tactical direction and it was the first time people started to question Kennedy. Fast forward a year, and we’re putting 6 past them and everyone is starting to believe in what’s happening at Sincil Bank.

I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent, but it was all to praise Skubala rather than just talking through the game straight away and praising the 16 players that impressed on the night. We’ve made a habit of starting fast, and we can’t underestimate that, it completely changes a game. We scored early once again on Tuesday, and it was Moylan, who picked up right where he left off against Barnsley. A cross found Lasse on the far side, the ball then fell to Moylan, and the Irishman made no mistake and smashed his effort past the Cambridge stopper from just inside the area. Advantage City very early in the game.

The only negative of the night came between the first and second goals. House was forced off with injury, and with the amount of time he’s missed this season, it’s a worry. His impact since returning has been big – not just with his threat in attack but his work off the ball and in the press. Hopefully it was more of a precaution than anything serious.

It was a bit of a surprise to see Jovon Makama come on – I fully expected us to bring Ted on and move Moylan into attack. I thought the young striker did well though, and a good 60 minutes of football will do him the world of good. 

Any worries that House’s injury would derail us were gone just a few minutes after he went off. Erhahon won the ball high up the pitch, and played it into the feet of Moylan inside the area. The Irishman took a touch before striking the ball low into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season (and fourth in two matches).

We could’ve scored a few more before the referee put an end to the half. Taylor almost squeezed the ball in at a tight angle, and Lasse created a chance with a volley after a quality ball in from Roughan. It was a dominant first-half from City, and with Oxford getting taught a lesson by Bolton, we were capitalising and edging closer towards the play-offs that we all thought wouldn’t happen after drawing 0-0 with Stevenage.

We killed off the game very quickly in the second-half, giving Cambridge no chance of any sort of revival. Hackett played Mandroiu down the left-hand side and the Irishman put in an excellent ball, finding Taylor in all sorts of space just a few yards out. The loanee striker was in the right place to tap home his fourth City goal and a third of the evening for Skubala’s side. 

Taylor could’ve and probably should’ve had another one just a few minutes later. Mandroiu was once again at the hear of the move after winning the ball back high up the pitch from a Cambridge midfielder. He played it through to Taylor, leaving him one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but the striker’s effort was weak and was kept out by the keeper with relative ease.

He didn’t have to wait long for his fifth goal of the season and second of the evening though. A long ball forward from Roughan found Moylan in the centre, the latter played Taylor in on goal once again and this time he made no mistake, dinking it over the keeper in very similar fashion to his only other goal at home since joining the club.

Skubala then turned to his bench with the game won to give a few players a rest and some fringe players some minutes, which are always tough to come by when everyone is in such great form. Duffy and Eyoma got on, replacing Hackett and Sorensen. We also saw return from injuries for Bishop and Jackson, as they replaced Mandroiu and Mitchell. 

One of the substitutes got straight into the goals, and it was one you’d least expect. TJ Eyoma. O’Connor connected with Duffy’s corner and almost scored but it was kept out by the keeper. The ball fell to Bishop on the edge of the area, the midfielder fired an effort towards goal but it fell to Eyoma. The 24-year-old applied a nice back-heeled finish for his third of the season. It’s worth mentioning that this season is his best goalscoring season of his career, taking his tally of 5 professional career goals. 

The next goal came just a minute later. Ted and Erhahon linked up in the midfielder before finding Duffy on the left. The winger cut in, firing an effort towards goal. His first one was blocked, but the ball fell back to him, allowing him to smash the ball under the keeper to get City’s sixth and final goal of the evening. 

We were outstanding on Tuesday evening. The run we are on is impressive and as we sit just three points outside the playoffs, you have to wonder what is possible this season. We could actually do it, and that’s exciting. This group has always had the potential to do this, but now we’ve found the coach that can take us in the right direction. With our run in compared to others around us, we could be sitting in the playoffs on Easter Sunday, but like I’ve said before we need to take it one game at a time and see where we are come the end of the season.

Bristol Rovers is the first of 8 cup finals on Saturday. It should be packed too, so hopefully another good performance and another three points.