Cambridge United welcome Rushden & Diamonds to the Abbey Stadium on Friday evening for a Setanta Shield fourth round tie.

Team News

There will be no significantly 'weakened' teams on show in this competition as 10 of the 16 players named on the team sheet must have taken part in the clubs' two previous Blue Square Premier fixtures.

Midfielder Paul Carden has been recalled from his loan by Accrington Stanley, Darryl Knights has returned to Yeovil, and Mark Peters has been ill for part of this week and is a slight doubt. However Jimmy Quinn can recall Stephen Reed from a one-match suspension and centre-half Mark Albrighton is set to return after suffering problems with stitches in a knee injury earlier this month.

Captain Danny Brown will play his second game after making his comeback against King's Lynn last weekend and is looking to build up his match fitness ahead of the busy holiday schedule.

With youngster Robbie Willmott coming off the bench again for the last 15 minutes against King's Lynn there is a chance he could get a longer run out tonight, while Quinn will probably also involve fellow scholar Michael Hyem and also give Mark Convery another run out to help the midfielder continue his comeback from injury.

The Opposition

Rushden ended a run of four straight defeats with a 4-1 win at Droylsden two weeks ago and followed up by winning 3-2 at Bamber Bridge in the FA Trophy last weekend.

Quinn insists that he and his squad will prepare for and treat this game the same as a league game, saying, "Every game we play is important and so is the momentum - it doesn't matter whether it's a league or a cup game, we want to win every game.

"We're concentrating on one game at a time, we'll analyse each game on the video and look at the stats, we'll take all the information on board, and we'll keep going."

He added, "We don't want to look too far ahead. I know we've got important games coming up but as far as I'm concerned the most important right now is this game. It's like any other cup competition - if you get to the finals of them it creates a lot of interest for the fans and a bit of revenue for the club as well, and that's important so we'll be going out to do our best.

"We're at home, we're through to the next round of the FA Trophy, we've got a good momentum, but we've got to keep focused and try to win every game as it comes along.

"The players are enjoying it; it's a busy period but they have done a lot of fitness work so we just need to balance the playing, training and rest over the next few weeks when we have so many games close together."

More Information

Learn more about the Diamonds in our "The Other Side" preview, and if you fancy a bet on our match or any other event this weekend please follow this link to visit our official betting partners bet365 - the only place where your online betting makes money for the U's.

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