Cambridge United play the second of four consecutive home matches tomorrow, when fifth-from-bottom Altrincham come to town.

The bookies have United as 4/9 favourites to win tomorrow, while Altrincham are 6/1 to win and the draw is 11/4, and in-form Scott Rendell is 4/1 to open the scoring. Click here for all the match odds.

Team News

There are question marks over the fitness of three members of the squad.

Striker Lee Boylan has missed the last two games with a hamstring strain but Quinn was hopefully he would be able to train before the end of this week, while defender Mark Peters was included among the subs on Tuesday but he is still "feeling" his knee so he will be assessed before the game.

A new concern is captain Danny Brown, with an ankle injury: "He took a knock on his ankle and he's rated doubtful for Saturday," revealed Quinn.

"When you've been out injured as long as Danny has, sometimes it's very hard to pick up the pace again and to be honest he's found it hard and he knows himself he's struggled with that a bit. And to get another knock on the same ankle is a blow to Dan.

"But he's a strong character and he's my captain so whether he's playing, or even if he's not playing well, he's still a voice and he's still a big influence on the players around and he's fantastic in the dressing room, even when he's injured so we just hope he gets a speedy recovery and he's back in contention."

Paul Carden and Leo Fortune-West are still suspended following their sendings off at Histon in the FA Trophy, but they will complete their three-match bans by sitting out Saturday's match and will be available for Tuesday's visit of Exeter City.

Quinn included Courtney Pitt behind the front two on Tuesday and he may continue with that formation tomorrow: "I'll look at it but Altrincham will pose a different threat; they've got different types of players.

"I thought overall Courtney did well on Tuesday, although I would like to see him get more shots away. He found himself in the middle of the park a lot of the time and once or twice he wanted the ball to sit just perfect before having a shot, but he put in a fantastic ball for the second of Scott's goals, and with his pace and power he is a threat."

Quinn was also pleased to see Rendell score his first hat-trick, and loanee Lee McEvilly get off the mark with his first goal for the club: "It takes players a little time to adjust to their new surroundings but I thought Lee McEvilly did well on two fronts on Tuesday. He looked a threat and scored his first goal - and he could have scored three or four from the chances he had - but he also takes a lot off Scott Rendell's shoulders and that frees Scott up.

"Lee never stops running, he's shutting people down all the time and that puts defences under a lot of pressure.

"And Scott has done very well; he's a very good finisher with 22 goals now. Some strikers would have been happy with one goal but he has a hunger to get more goals and he's getting in really good positions at the moment, and he did very well on Tuesday with some very cool finishes."

The Opposition

Altrincham are currently fifth from bottom with 22 points and have won just three of their last ten games, and they have won just twice on their travels.

Their striker Tom Cahill is reportedly a doubt with a thigh strain while midfielder Val Owen is ruled out by a foot injury.

Quinn expects the Robins to present a sterner test than Droylsden did on Tuesday, but he believes Tuesday's 5-0 win provided a big boost to the players' confidence following four defeats.

"It was important to take the game to Droylsden and attack them at every opportunity at every opportunity, which we did, and we scored five and should have scored more," he commented.

"We had 15/16/ shots on goal and nine or ten of them were on target so so it shows we're back on form and the appetite is there. We kept a clean sheet on top of all that, and that should give the players great confidence going into this weekend.

"Altrincham will have looked at our home record and they might come here and pack the midfield and play one up front and try and nick something. Droylsden only played one up front the other day and that's all credit to our lads. They packed the midfield and we managed to play at the right tempo and get the ball in the right areas; our plan was to get as many shots away and as many crosses into the box as we could and we did that.

"It's important that we try to entertain the fans and that involves chances and shots around the box, whether it's Altrincham or anybody else."

While Quinn has added Paul Carden, Ben Farrell, Lee McEvilly and Wayne Hatswell to the squad during this transfer window, Graham Heathcote has also been busy with seven new additions, including Halifax defender Greg Young and Northwich defender Richard Battersby, and extending the loan of Stoke's Ryan Shotton.

Commented Quinn, "I know they've brought five or six young lads from League clubs, and one or two of them are particularly good and they've got a lad with a long throw that causes problems, so they've got a better team this time around than they did earlier in the season.

"They have 22 points compared to Droylsden's ten so you'd have to say they'll be better opposition than Droylsden, but we're at home and it's all about what we do. We have to play at the right pace and take the game to them and give our fans something to shout about.

"Altrincham will want to keep it tight and try to frustrate our fans and hope that our fans get on our backs, but our fans have been brilliant; look at the Grays game last weekend when we didn't play particularly well, but our fans were shouting from start to finish.

"The fans are a big, big part of what's going to happen this year and there's a lot of points still on the table to be won, and I'll be the first to congratulate them at the end of the season if we do have any success, because they deserve it."

More Information

Current form:
Cambridge: DLLLLW
Altrincham: LLWLWD

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