I may be getting carried away with the euphoria of a result such as the one from last night, but I've had a big shift in opinion regarding our manager, Jez George. Don't say it too loudly, but it might even be one of those rare occasions when I'm wrong. At the start of the season, I was adamant that the appointment of a man who had never managed a senior football team was not going to amount to any sort of success. I thought success in this league would be brought about by a non-league stalwart, someone who had a few battle scars from what is probably the toughest division in professional football to get promoted from. To be fair, I did also say that when these sort of appointments work, they REALLY work. I'm not going to completely retract my opinion that we need a non-league stalwart at the helm, but I'm very close to admitting I was completely in the wrong in saying we should not have appointed Jez George. There's a long way to go yet, but Jez seems to have laid the foundations for a season of relative success and at the same time changed my mind on what our football club needed to push forward.
The super U's are now undefeated in 8 and have won their last 3 games in a row, with 2 of those against opposition we're not expected to beat in Darlington and Luton. You don't go on a run like that with a couple of the top teams involved in your fixtures by fluke. A winning formula to getting out of this division doesn't always necessarily involve a big budget. If you look at the teams that have been promoted from recent seasons, the main ingredients are a younger, well organised squad who have some previous momentum. The likes of Accrington, Dagenham, Aldershot and Burton were all on an upward spiral when they got promoted, not a club in the doldrums looking to get back to former glories. They were all in the top tier of non-league football having come from further down the pyramid. Looking back over the winners of the division, it's extremely rare for a recently relegated side to win it. Without delving too deep into the stats, I can't find a single club that has been relegated into the Blue Square Premier then become champions at the first time of asking - can any statto confirm? The likes of Exeter and Torquay have gone back up through the play-offs after short spells in non-league, but other than them it's clubs who have risen through the divisions, done their time in the top tier of non-league and waited their turn. Apart from Crawley, there isn't anyone I begrudge their place in the Football League. Of course I'd rather it was Cambridge United than Torquay or Exeter after our two ill fated Wembley play-off final trips, but I'm doing my best to eradicate both those occasions from memory.
Looking at the teams that have gone on to the Football League and how Jez has gone about his business this season, it looks like we've followed suit. Throwing a £1million plus budget and signing big non-league names under Jimmy Quinn and Gary Brabin didn't do us any favours, we got close but the job wasn't complete. It's not doing the likes of Luton, Mansfield and York any favours either. The framework for success in this division is a united club all pushing in the same direction, who are hungry to play with a point to prove. The prize for succeeding is immense, for everyone involved in the club. My main fear with Jez at the helm was the lack of nous he'd have operating in this division. As much as you might despise him, Steve Evans knew all the tricks to make Crawley a horrible team to play against, then when armed with a budget like this level of football has never seen before, win the league at a canter. I thought we'd need much the same. It turns out a work ethic, not over complicating tactics and never resting on your laurels is the recipe and Jez is a master chef!
I'm not going to go changing what I think our club needs every time it starts going right or wrong, but I'm more than happy to say that being in a minority who were disappointed in the appointment of Jez, I couldn't of got it more wrong. He IS the man for us. Even if the season doesn't continue in the same vain, even if we do end up in mid-table mediocrity, the ingredients are there and Jez is the man to lead us forward. I am proud to say I'm a Cambridge United fan again. But U's fans, as I pointed out in my previous Jez related blog - DARE TO DREAM! We are over a quarter of the way into the season and sit 1 place outside the play-off places on the back of a magnificent run. We go to Southport on Saturday with the potential to end the day 1 point off top spot! I know we've had our fingers burnt before, I know Wembley hurt, but we're football fans, more importantly we're Cambridge United fans! This is what we do, we set ourselves up for a fall. It will make the successes all the more sweeter and the defeats all the more bitter. I'd rather be at each end of that spectrum than plodding along satisfied with finishing the season in 12th.
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