Gary Gardner's ghost haunts U's in 3-2 loss vs Birmingham City

The U's looked to add to their unbeaten streak with an FA Cup tie against Birmingham City. Harris made a handful of changes including starting Rossi as Watts was dropped from the squad. Birmingham also played a rotated side.

The U's came out at the races and were able to keep the ball well and prevent any chances that Birmingham tried to make. The first chance of the game came through Ben Knight who's snap shot blazed over the bar following a great spell of possession for United. Unfortunately, a chipped ball in the United box only a few minutes later caused pin ball and it was Kai Wagner's thrashing shot that beat Eastwood.

The first half only got worse for the U's as a crucial mistake from Rossi was pounced on by 'Celtic reject' Furuhashi, who curled his shot into the far bottom corner and the Championship side took a 2-0 lead going into the half time break.

The U's once again were the better side from the break and dominated every metric. Just as the U's were putting their foot on the necks of the Birmingham City backline, the away side took a game finishing 3-0 lead. 4 unanswered substitutions led to more pressure from the U's who were knocking on the door but just couldn't create a clear cut chance.

Birmingham sat deep, wasted time at every opportunity and got away with multiple bookings but that didn't stop substitute Kaikai who's shot found it's way in with 10 minutes to spare.

With time seemingly going past faster than usual, the U's were still down by 2 goals. The man of the moment stepped up again and Kaikai's thunderous volley smashed the back of the net and sat down Beadle in the Birmingham net.

More time wasting from Birmingham and a Ben Purrington wide header was all she wrote. A fantastic performance from the U's who made all those in attendance proud. Ultimately a lack of chances, poor officiating and individual errors were all key contributors to United's FA Cup exit. That being said, we were superb on the pitch and in the stands.