Cambridge United 3-1 Crawley Town
by Bella Katz
 
at Abbey Stadium

CARDBOARD cutouts of absent fans waved back and forth in the freezing stands at Abbey Stadium as Mark Bonner’s Cambridge United extended their lead at the top of the League Two table on Saturday, with a firm win against mid-table Crawley Town.

The CU’s seemed in good spirits despite a three-or-so-hour journey up to Salford City earlier in the week that ended up postponed due to a frozen pitch just moments before the match was due to begin — Gary Neville did, however, offer to compensate the lads’ fares.

The victory meant United ended January unbeaten.

“It keeps the unbeaten run going and importantly January as a month has been really good to us,” said Bonner.

“It was a big game, a big performance at times against a really good side. You only have to look at their goal to see the sort of execution they have with the ball.”

John Yems’s Crawley have proved themselves to be tough opponents this season, performing well in their FA cup run, narrowly missing out on playing the fifth round after losing 2-1 to AFC Bournemouth on Tuesday. 

The game appeared fairly balanced at first — Joe Ironside gave Cambridge the lead in the 11th minute, but Crawley reacted quickly and Jake Hessenthaler levelled the scoreline a mere three minutes later, with a strong right-footed strike beating the Us defence.

United picked up momentum at the end of the first half, with multiple shots putting the Reds’ goalie under pressure. 

The breakthrough came at 45+2, when CU right-back Kyle Knoyle scored an absolute screamer from outside the box, a display not dissimilar from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s strike against Liverpool on Thursday night.

“The second goal, the timing of it was massive really — to go in two-one up was massive encouragement for us and probably a little bit of a downer for them,” said Bonner.

“And what a second goal it was, I didn’t know he could do that.

“It’s a great goal, great execution, and it gave us a little bit of encouragement and confidence going in at half time.”

Winger Shilow Tracey was a strong presence off the bench — he contributed a brilliant assist to Wes Hoolahan’s goal in the final moments of the match, sealing off a comfortable win for the Us, who travel to Barrow AFC next.