Big stopper Simon Brown is fast becoming a fans favourite with the Abbey faithful and has earned even more kudos after saving Charlie Sheringham's first half spot kick. Simon explains to cambridgeunited.com that it wasn't the first one he's saved in his career.

"To be honest I haven't had to face too many penalties over the years. I remember playing for Colchester away at Yeovil midweek in the cup, which went to penalties, and I did well that night. They had a couple retaken after the referee accused me of coming of my line and I saved those as well. Today was the same as it normally is. The pressure is always on the taker, who will always be favourite to score - all I have to do is try to get on to it."

Reflecting on the decision itself the keeper looked back over the 90 minutes of action and found although the decision was debatable it was evened out in the end.

"Whether it was a penalty I don't know. How I view it is that you are 10 yards away in the wall, if your arm is outside of your body then fair enough it's given but for me the one given against Danny was harsh to say the least. Though there could have been two or three more at the other end and at our end Josh Coulson has got his hands to one or two and the referee could have easily given them but he waved play on."

Looking back over a less frenetic derby day than the last few encounters between the teams, although not too pleased with the performance, Simon was happy with the way United turned the match round.

"It was a typical derby match, exciting for the fans. All be it the first half was a bit scrappy and we to be fair were poor in that period. The second half I thought we were better but it took their goal to spur us on and with the two substitutions it gave us something extra as the game sprung into life and opened up. We then took control and we looked like the only team who was going to win the game."

Happy with another three points Brown then turned his attentions to Tuesday's visit of Salisbury City and his hopes that the current form continues.

"I may not be fully up to speed on the history of rivalry with Histon but as a player you know how much it means to the fans and you want to do everything you can to get the win for them. Putting Histon to one side that is six undefeated for us and three wins on the spin so we have to be looking forward to Salisbury on Tuesday. I keep looking at the current run as the glass being half full but I think someone keeps filling it up at the moment. Another three points on Tuesday will go well to getting us into the top half of the table which will give Martin a great platform for next year."

After the Barrow game former Cambridge City man Scott Neilson stated his attentions were focussed on today's derby and getting a win against the neighbours. So having grabbed United's equaliser he could not help the broad smile as he reflected on a derby day win.

"It was a scrappy game we didn't help ourselves by not really getting going. I thought we didn't really start to play till they got their goal. As soon as we equalised their heads went down and you could sense that the next goal was going to be ours. As the game got stretched we started dropping in long balls diagonally over the top of their defence and creating chances with first time balls into the box. In fact it reminded me of another side in that style of play although not so direct.

"I said after last week's game I wanted to get one over on them, so scoring the equaliser meant a lot to me and I'd like to dedicate it to not only all the fans here who have been great to me over the last three games, but also to all at Milton Road as well. Looking back I should have got one five minutes before, but their keeper has pulled off a good save. So when the chance came so soon after I buried it. The reaction of the fans when it hit the net was something special."

Looking forward to the run in the midfielder also laid his cards firmly on the table as to where he hopes his future will see him playing football.

"It's been three wins in a week for us which has started to do the job in pulling the Club away from the relegation zone but we know this isn't the time to sit back. There are still a lot of games to go and we know we have now set the standards that we have to live up to for the next month and a half. Personally I would love to be here till the end of the season. Hopefully Bradford will agree to that because it's great to be home."

Interview by David Gray


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