Cambridge United 5 Stafford Rangers 1
FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round Replay
At: Abbey Stadium
Kick-off: 7-45 pm
Weather: mild and dry
Attendance: 1965 (including 39 away fans)
Following Saturday's 1-1 draw at Marston Road, Stafford Rangers suffered bitter disappointment at the Abbey Stadium as Cambridge United recorded a 5-1 victory in this FA Cup Sponsored by E.ON Fourth Qualifying Round Replay. The home side scored three goals before half-time through Lee Boylan (31), Scott Rendell (40) and Rob Wolleaston (45) to take command. Kevin Street pulled a goal back in the 63rd minute to give hope to Stafford but Darryl Knights (70, 85) finished off the scoring. Cambridge face a home First Round tie against Aldershot Town, who beat Crawley Town in a replay
Stafford Rangers were forced to make one change from Saturday's starting line-up. Samy Mawene came in for the injured Marco Adaggio with Tom Ingram taking Mawene's place on the bench. Injured Cambridge skipper Danny Brown missed the replay so Darryl Knights, on loan from Yeovil, started.
Stafford made a bright start, attacking the away end at the Abbey Stadium in the first half with Cambridge kicking-off. In the third minute, Ross Draper exchanged passes with David Oldfield before firing just over from just outside the area.
Cambridge quickly got forward and Darryl Knights played a one-two with Scott Rendell before curling a 20-yards shot wide of the right-hand post.
After Luke Potter curled a free-kick wide of the near post, Stafford goalkeeper Danny Alcock was called into action at the other end to block a shot from Lee Boylan.
Stafford, having to work hard at the back, got forward again and won a free-kick just outside the home area. Mawene took it and curled the ball over wall and bar.
In the 18th minute, Rob Wolleaston's shot struck Wayne Daniel inside the area and the ball went out for a throw. Rendell then headed over the bar. Knights pulled the ball back from the right bye-line towards Rendell but Potter cleared.
Mark Peters almost scored an own goal. Under pressure from Kevin Street, he miss-hit a clearance which hit the top of his own bar and out for the first of two successive corners. By and large Cambridge's well-organised defence proved difficult to penetrate.
After surviving that scare, Cambridge broke the deadlock in the 31st minute. Lee Boylan fired home from 10 yards to finish off a move involving Scott Rendell and Darryl Knights.
Almost immediately, Stafford changed formation with David McNiven coming on as an extra striker in place of Draper.
The U's created further chances. Boylan hooked the ball over from 20 yards and Oldfield got in the way of another shot from Rendell following a deep right-wing cross from Dan Gleeson.
Boylan turned provider as the home side doubled their lead in the 41st minute. Luke Potter failed to clear and Rendell forced the ball home at close range.
Rob Wolleaston made it three in first-half stoppage time. The midfielder thumped the ball into the top right corner and the game looked all over as a contest.
Cambridge almost scored again ten minutes after the restart. Knights got in a volley from the edge of the area which hit the left-hand post and rebounded to safety. Boylan soon went for goal but fired well wide across the face of goal.
Nathan Smith replaced David Oldfield on the hour mark and Stafford managed to get back into contention by reducing the deficit in the 63rd minute. Potter's deep cross from the left fell to Street who took advantage of a slip by defender Mark Peters and fired home from eight yards out.
Stafford almost scored again a minute later. Nathan Smith rounded keeper Luke McShane but the defence got back to smother the chance.
Any hope of forcing extra time evaporated for Boro in the 70th minute. Alcock’s clearance was charged down by Knights and the ball ended up at the feet of Boylan on the right. He cut in and passed to Knights who slotted home at close range into the bottom-left corner.
Nathan Smith and McNiven both fired narrowly wide as Rangers got forward but Knights struck again in the 85th minute to complete the scoring. This time he got on the end of a low cross from Stephen Smith and beat Alcock with another low shot into the same corner of the net as before.
Once again, part-time Rangers found out the hard way about the gulf between themselves and full-time opposition. Manager Phil Robinson agreed: "I think that midweek games after a hard game on a Saturday catch out part-time teams such as ourselves. You could tell the difference tonight between the full-time and part-time team.
"At 3-1 and creating chances, we thought if we got another goal then the pressure would be on Cambridge. But we gavae away a sloppy goal and it was then a lost cause."
Cambridge United (amber and black stripes/black/black) 20. Luke McShane; 6. Mark Albrighton (capt), 5. Mark Peters, 21. Michael Morrison; 7. Danny Gleeson, 8. Rob Wolleaston, 3. Stephen Reed, 11. Courtney Pitt; 28. Darryl Knights; 9. Scott Rendell, 10. Lee Boylan. Subs: 18. Stephen Smith (for Boylan, 73), 17. Gavin Hoyte (for Peters, 77), 19. Leo Fortune-West (for Rendell, 77), 23. Joshus Coulson, 22. Michael Hyem.
Stafford Rangers (red/red/red) 1. Danny Alcock; 21. Jemiah Richards, 5. Wayne Daniel (capt), 6. Djoumin Sangare, 32. Luke Potter; 28. David Oldfield, 17. Ross Draper, 7. Chris Flynn, 8. Kevin Street; 22. Samy Mawene; 9. Neil Grayson. Subs: 10. David McNiven (for Draper, 34). 15. Nathan Smith (for Oldfield, 60), 24. Steve Hopkinson (for Richards, 90), 16. Tom Ingram, 31. Tom Youngs.
Referee: Steve Creighton.
Assistants: Richard Kendall and Sian Massey.
Fourth Official: Paul Forrester.
Goals: 1-0 Mark Boylan (31)
2-0 Scott Rendell (40)
3-0 Rob Wolleaston (45)
3-1 Kevin Street (63)
4-1 Darryl Knights (70)
5-1 Darryl Knights (85)
Cards:
Cambridge: none
Stafford: Ross Draper (YC, 23)
This match report was originally written for and published on the now defunct www.staffordrangers.co.uk
