Bournemouth 1 - 1 U's
By Dan Smith
August 19 2002
The honours even at the Fitness First Stadium, with both teams coming away happy with the point. A rare Terry Fleming wonder-strike gave the U's the lead...

Sunny Bournemouth was the venue for the U's next attempt of an away win. No such luck this time round but Cambridge should be satisfied with the point.

The U's started the game very well, taking the game to Bournemouth and allowing them very limited attacking play. Possibly the smallest centre-midfield pairing in Terry Fleming and Luke Guttridge were putting themselves about as though they were two Lennox Lewis', dominating the centre of the pitch.

There was a scare early on as Stev Angus got himself into trouble with a challenge that would usually earn a red card. Bournemouths Warren Feeney burst away on a Cheeries counter attack, completely clear through on goal. Just outside the box Stevland Angus put him to the floor. To the away supports delight, the card shown was yellow. The resulting free kick was struck into the wall. No harm done there...

With the play bouncing between the two teams boxes for most of the half, the U's still looked the more dominant side with varied movement and crisp passing keeping them on top of the game. The U's efforts weren't to go unmerited though.

To the delight of Terry Fleming, a Bournemouth clearence fell at his feet. You wouldn't of expected the terrier to stick this one in the back of the net, but Fleming's sweet volley was rifled home from 20 yards out, get in there!

United went in for half time with the knowledge that they were on top of Bournemouth and were cruising, but would they keep this up? Apparantly Cherries manager Sean O'Driscoll was fuming at half time and really gave his side a kick up the backside.

Bournemouth came out at half time looking much fresher than John Taylors men, understandably so with United having to endure a five-hour coach trip earlier that morning.

Almost straight away in the second half came the last thing that United would of wanted, a goal from diving blonde Warren Feeney. The cheating Northen Ireland international who earlier on in the game threw himself to the floor to try and win a penalty tucked a well placed shot through Shaun Marshall. As usual U's fans are left on the edge of their seat for the whole 90 minutes, will we ever just win comfortably knowing that the last 10 minutes of a match will be insignificant?

With the pressure once again piling on the U's Shaggy made a change to keep it tighter in the Cambridge half. Captain Fantastic Paul Wanless on for blonde streaked David Kitson meant Riza could move up-front, with Wanless slotting in, in front of the defence.

Once again we were left biting our nails as the last ten minutes saw Bournemouth responding to their fans increasing support and pushing forward wherever possible. But for the second time running the U's held on, no slip ups in injury time and a well deserved point to be added to Cambridge's tally on the table. In the end a draw was a fair results with both sides having chances to take the match. Some excellent football again from Cambridge, it looks like Shaggys ideas are finally coming together. Bring on Orient, where hopefully our comparible with Brazil football will flourish!

Man of the Match: Terry Fleming - Another tireless gutsy performance, this mans like a duracell battery! Just when you thought he was down and out here he is again, cracking goal too.

Bournemouth 1 - 1 Cambridge United

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