Jabo Ibehre is Cambridge United's match winner against Crawley Town

U's get season up and running

Jabo Ibehre made a match-winning 12-minute cameo as Cambridge United beat Crawley Town 1-0 in Sky Bet League Two last Saturday.

The striker sustained a rib injury in training, which meant he was only fit enough to start on the bench.

Ibehre was called into action in the 57th minute, and within six minutes had scored his first league goal for the U’s, burying a rebound after Uche Ikpeazu had been denied.

However, Ibehre had to be substituted six minutes later.

“I thought in terms of trying to get that winning goal we pressed the buttons, and for the first half it was a very tight game,” United head coach Shaun Derry told the club’s website.

“As the game opened up, I always felt we could get the three points.

“On the back of two disappointing results – not in terms of performances – you have to realise where we’ve been and who we’ve been up against.

“I spoke about it throughout the week about being cool and calm and calculated about going into the game and I’m pleased we took away the points and the clean sheet.

“The fact that Jabo was on the bench was because he got injured in training. We knew he could only play a small part of the game, we didn’t realise it would be that small, but the importance of his impact was massive, and it takes the three points away with us.”