Head coach Mark Bonner sat down with local media this morning prior to United’s trip to Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday (1st March)…
On the season stretching out after Tuesday night:
“I think once we’re done tomorrow, if you count Easter Monday, it might be two [mid-week games] in the last eight weeks. The next four weeks we don't have a Tuesday game which is crazy really when you think about how busy the schedule was earlier in the season.
“It’s certainly a less intense schedule as the season goes on, but you look at the remaining 12 games and we've got some belters to play in there against some good sides.
“It's mad that we’ve got 12 games to go, and we’ve still got to play Wycombe twice. The way the fixtures have fallen is crazy to be at this stage and have not played them yet.
“Tomorrow is one of many away games coming up against the top teams which will be a great test for us and one we’re looking forward to.”
On Wycombe Wanderers:
“We’ve not played them for a while, but historically against each other we can look back to a few fixtures, having played against each other several times in previous seasons.
“The growth and development at their team and the progress they've made, playing in the Championship last year, it’s an incredible achievement from Gareth [Ainsworth] and Richard Dobson.
“I'm speaking to Gareth as part of my Pro Licence, around developing culture over a long period of time and you can see that he's done that.
“We’re looking forward to seeing them tomorrow and to see if we can continue our good form. They're a team that have had some difficult games and results recently, so they will be looking to get back to winning ways on Tuesday.
“There are a lot of good teams in this league, and they’ve all got players that are capable of hurting you, as have we, we know that, but we also know every team we play against they’ll have plenty of threats.
“Wycombe have got a lot of power in the team and players that we are going to have to play very well against in order to contain them and defend against. They’re direct and are strong from set plays, and as always, we need to see how we can be a threat too.”
Team news:
“Harvey [Knibbs] isn’t too far away, hopefully he's out running today so we’ll see how that goes and see what we can get from him this week, but if everything goes well he won't be too far away at all.
“It's the first time Jack’s [Lankester] gone back-to-back games for us and I don't know the last time he had done that full stop, but this is the stage of the season where he needs to put games together and needs to continually work on that physical side of the game to keep improving.
“We’ve had four players that have played on that right wing that have rotated around that position. All of them are actually capable of playing off the left-hand side as well.
“We can't survive and develop as a team if we don't have an incredible work ethic and you won’t survive as a player if you don't. So it's really simple that you have to commit physically to the game’s first of all, and then everything else comes as a consequence of that.
“At the moment Jensen [Weir] is struggling a little bit, so the longer that goes on it makes it feel like he might not get back with us because it’s going into quite a long period of time. He's still under Brighton’s watch at the moment and seeing different people around his knee.
“It’s disappointing for us because he was great before he went. I’ll speak to him today and see where he’s at but obviously he's really well looked after at Brighton.”