Cambridge United put Sky Bet League One survival hopes in their own hands with win at Accrington Stanley
Make no mistake about it – Cambridge United are giving it everything to retain their Sky Bet League One status.
Heading into April the U’s looked down and out, but a major upturn in performances and results – the most recent of which was a 2-1 win at fellow strugglers Accrington Stanley this afternoon – means the U’s will be playing in the third tier again next season if they win their remaining two fixtures.
The first of those comes on Wednesday night away at Burton Albion before a potentially nail-biting final game of the season against already-relegated Forest Green Rovers at the Abbey Stadium.
Against Accrington goals in either from club legend Harrison Dunk and George Thomas – his first since joining the club in January – put United in command at the Wham Stadium.
A penalty from Aaron Pressley seven minutes from the end of normal time halved the deficit and set up a nervy finish, but United held out to pick up what could turn out to be a precious three points.
Looking ahead to the trip to Burton, head coach Mark Bonner urged the supporters that are able to make the trip to Staffordshire to head to the Pirelli Stadium.
He told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: “Our supporters were amazing today. The message to them is come Wednesday if you can. If you can get to Burton, come. If you can tell your mates to come, bring them. And tell them to bring their mates because if we can sell that out we’re going to need everyone on Wednesday. It’s a massive game for us.”
As for the match itself, Bonner is expecting Burton to throw up similar challenges to the ones posed by today’s opponents.
He added: “We’ll go home and rest and get ready to train Monday and Tuesday. We’ll prepare for the game the best we can as normal.
“We’ve got to go there and be brilliant, that’s it. We’ve got to be outstanding and win the game. That’s the challenge we’ve got to put the players under against a team that are equally as tough to play against and make you defend in really similar ways (as Accrington).
“If we win the game it puts it into our hands on the last day and we want to be in the race. If we can get ahead of it then that’s really important.
“We want to know that it’s in our hands on the last day but we’ve got to go and be brilliant on Wednesday in order to do that.”
Bonner also had praise for the way that his players coped with the pressure placed on them at Accrington – particularly when the hosts forced a number of scrambles in the closing stages in the search for an equaliser.
“Our temperament was excellent. Our discipline was superb and in the first half we were really well controlled. We handled everything that was going to be here today well until the frantic finish,” said the boss.
“At the time when we got 2-0 up I thought we were in real control of the game and we were playing a team that looked leggy and tired after the excellent work that they did on Tuesday at Bolton (1-0 win).
“The goal gives them encouragement, it gives them something to chase and it was the alamo in the end. We had to try and see it through and somehow we did. It was important we got through that period.
“What we’ve done well recently in a lot of big games, we’ve had to show up and deliver and win and play well and we have - we’ve got to do that two more times.”
