Look ahead to Saturday’s clash at The Hive
Cambridge United travel to the Hive Stadium tomorrow afternoon for a Sky Bet League Two encounter against newly promoted Barnet FC, kicking off 3:00pm.
Richard Money’s men will be looking to bounce back in the best possible fashion in the capital, having suffered their first League defeat of the season last weekend at the Abbey Stadium against Crawley Town.
Despite the setback, United still currently sit in seventh position in Sky Bet League Two with seven points to their name following a positive start to the season, which has already seen them claim two wins against Newport County and AFC Wimbledon, as well as a valuable point from the arduous away trip to Carlisle two weeks ago.
The U's are likely to be without striker Barry Corr again who continues to recover from an ankle injury, whilst central midfielder Keith Keane could also miss the fixture having suffered from sickness earlier this week which has affected his training pattern.
Meanwhile tomorrow’s opponents are enjoying their first season back in the Football League, following promotion as Champions from the Conference Premier during the 2014/15 season.
A 2-0 home win against Northampton Town got their League tally up and running last week, whilst an impressive victory over League One outfit Millwall in the first round of the Capital One Cup is a clear indication of the threat Martin Allen’s side carry.
With the likes of John Akinde and former U’s trio Tom Champion, Michael Gash and Michael Nelson amongst the Bees’ roster of players this season, the U’s can expect a tricky encounter.
U’s boss Richard Money is envisaging exactly that from the hosts tomorrow, commenting: “I think that the reality of not only this League but any League is that if you are not ready at your highest possible intensity then you can get beaten by anybody. Barnet are no different.
“They lost to Wycombe at home last week but they beat Northampton, they knocked Millwall out of the Capital One Cup and took Wolves very close on Tuesday night.
“Obviously they have a big attacking threat up front in John Akinde, Michael Gash who we know really well, Aaron Mclean and Shaun Batt, and any two from those four are capable of causing us a real problem. They also have some decent pace in other areas of the pitch and Martin [Allen] will have them extremely intense, especially at home.
“We will need a good performance from the group to have a chance of getting anything.
“The difficulty of a 46 game season is that you will confront all types of players and systems. You therefore need a group of players that are equipped to deal with them on the day and we have been able to do that up until last weekend, so we have to get back to that on Saturday because we don’t want the same experience again.”
With the Bees traditionally in Amber and Black colours, the U’s will take to the field at the Hive tomorrow afternoon donning the 2015/16 limited edition third kit for the first time, with United supporters able to view a teaser image of the jersey on the official Cambridge United twitter account @CambridgeUtdFC.
Tickets for the game and away travel are both still available online by clicking here.