After taking four points from two of the teams above us in the last two games - a home win against Stevenage and Tuesday's draw at Aldershot - Cambridge United travel to Halifax aiming to keep the pressure on the teams above.

The bookies have United as 13/10 slight favourites to win, with Halifax at 17/10 and the draw at 12/5, and usual there is a wide range of other match and goalscorer odds. Click here for all the match odds.

Team News

On loan midfielder Paul Carden is suspended for this match, Danny Brown, Darren Quinton and Dan Chillingworth are still sidelined by injuries, and there is still a question mark over Ben Farrell.

The midfielder made an impressive first start in the win against Stevenage but suffered a knock on his temple during the game, and although he trained on Monday he suffered headaches overnight and missed Tuesday's game at Aldershot.

"He's still having headaches and he's seeing the doctor again today," confirmed Jimmy Quinn. "We had him checked out the other day and all the indications were that he's OK and there's nothing to worry about, but it was a bang on the temple so we don't want to take any risks.

"There are no new injury problems," he added. "Mark Albrighton has had another injection in his Achilles but he's fit for selection and he's been on the bench anyway, and hopefully Ben Farrell will improve enough to take part.

"I was hoping he could slot in there in place of Paul Carden, who has been a big player for us since he came, but we'll have to see how Ben is."

Adding to his comments yesterday evening about Michael Morrison's decision to sign a new deal, Quinn continued, "We have a decent settled squad and Michael Morrison staying shows our intentions to our fans.

"We've had a lot of interest in our players this season but we're not looking to sell our best players because we want to give ourselves the best possible chance of success this season."

The Opposition

The Shaymen are currently 18th on 32 points, 23 behind United having played two games less, and they have only won once in the league this year - a 2-0 win at home to struggling Farsley Celtic on New Year's Day.

However, they have only lost once at home all season and United have not won at the Shay since 1976, and indeed you have to look back to Burton on Friday 23rd November for our last win on the road.

"Halifax have a decent home record and they've only lost once at home, although they've drawn a lot, and we'll need to be on our mettle," warned Quinn.

"People have told me they're something of a bogey team for us so it would be nice to break that. It's another game against a decent side with a good home record, but a lot of the teams around us have a good home record too - that's why they're up there - and we need a result.

"We need to stay in contention with the pack above us, so we're going there for a win," he added.

"We deserve to be in the position we're in and Stevenage are under a bit of pressure at the moment, and a good result at Halifax would set us up for the next game at home to Forest Green. Being consistent will help us to reach our goals, and we're not out of contention in the league - we'll be trying to catch Aldershot."

United have the meanest defence in the Blue Square Premier and Quinn hopes to base Saturday's performance on a clean sheet, as he explained.

"Halifax have one of the best strikers in our league in Jon Shaw so we'll need to take care of him, but we did a good job at Aldershot on their strikers and that's what we're looking to build on.

"Halifax have shown they're hard to beat at home but we've gone to other clubs who are hard to beat at home and done well. We have to expect that and play to our strengths and work hard to break them down. A draw would be a good result but let's go there for the win," he added.

"At Aldershot one or two of our players didn't play as well as they have, but we want to put that right and a clean sheet would go a long way towards getting the result we want."

More Information

'The Other Side' article follows this evening. You can find directions to Halifax and ticket details here, and if you fancy a bet on our match or any other event this week 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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