Cambridge United v Accrington Stanley

Head Coach
Mark Bonner
Firstly, I’d like to welcome John Coleman, his staff and players to
The Abbey for today’s Sky Bet League One tie against Accrington Stanley.
Last weekend’s hard earnt point at Burton
was an important one, albeit both teams
probably felt frustrated not to have taken
all three, whilst relieved to have at least
taken something at the same time.
After a difficult start we found our way
into the game and came back from behind
twice against a notoriously tough team to
do so against.
We might have won the game late on. With
good attacking periods of play and some
wonderful counter attacks, had we found the
final action with more joy, we may have been
celebrating the win.
The challenge of recent away games
has been obvious and taking a point at
Fleetwood and Burton shouldn’t be sniffed
at. We take it, knowing there is more in us
and on another day may have returned home
better off. The late defeat at Gillingham
angers us as a point would have been ok.
Having played seven away games in six
weeks and 12 matches in 40 days, our
schedule has been brutal. We are currently
on 19 Tuesday fixtures for the season and
heading towards 60 competitive games come
the end of the season. The players are doing
great and are always wanting to do better.
We hope that our first midweek break of
2022 has helped us to refresh ourselves
going into a busy fortnight starting today
against an Accrington Stanley side, who are
again having a good season and had an
excellent result against Crewe last weekend.
At the time of writing, I am preparing
to head up to Sheffield to watch them face
Sheffield Wednesday. This gives us a
chance to see them live which I always prefer
if the schedule allows. We will then prepare
the players on Thursday the best we can
for the game.
We won’t be alone in struggling for
space on the grass to train this week.
Tuesday was waterlogged and the forecast
for the remainder of the week looks crazy.
Perhaps today could be the first weekend
where we see games fall foul to the storms
and conditions. Either way, we expect
some challenging conditions today and as
pitches keep deteriorating, it is no surprise
to have seen a number of recent games
looking as they have. It’s that time of year.
A simple question always challenges us, ‘do
we fancy it?’.
The support we have had over the past six
weeks has been outstanding. For all who
have travelled with us and supported us
through a tough period, thank you. We have
always said that our progress as a team and
club will be determined by the support,
atmosphere and togetherness across the
whole club. We are building something
and that will have huge highs, dips and
challenges throughout, but as we do it,
there will be many good moments we can
share together.
Enjoy the game.
Mark
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