Cambridge United head coach Mark Bonner expecting a 'real test' from Lincoln City in League One encounter

Cambridge United will be bidding to rack up a fourth straight EFL League One home win when they entertain Lincoln City on Saturday.

The U's have seen off MK Dons, Exeter City and Burton Albion at The Abbey Stadium so far this term, making them one of just four teams in the division to boast a 100 per cent record on their own patch.

However, head coach Mark Bonner believes Lincoln, who have picked up four points on the road, will provide a stern examination of that record.

"If you can maintain your home form it can always be strong for you – that's something we want to try to do. We've got to fight for that but we've also got to play for that, we've got to be good enough to do that," said Bonner, who is expecting a quiet transfer deadline at the club.

"We play a team this weekend that have had some good results and performances away from home. They had a good result at Barnsley in the week, a good result at Oxford and a good point at Portsmouth – places we know are really hard to go and get results from.

"It will be a tough game – a really tough game – but we want to try and maintain the form we've had at home and the start we've made to the season.

"I've said a number of times you want to get to the 10-game marker and see what platform of points we're building from. We're ok at the moment but league positions, people talk about them a lot at the moment but they're so irrelevant because there are – I think – nine teams on seven points and we're on 10, so that tells me we're one game away from being 10 places lower than we are now.

"We're not getting too wrapped up in that. Points are important, performances are important and if we can get a positive result on Saturday that sets up nicely. It's our 10th game in 36 days which is a pretty brutal schedule after pre-season. After the game Saturday everyone has got a couple of days to get away from each other, which we haven't had since we've been back in June. Hopefully we can do that off the back of a really positive result."

It has been an up and down start to the new season for the visiting Imps, who are managed by former Republic of Ireland international Mark Kennedy.

There is a sense that it will take some time before his imprint is seen fully on the side, yet after a busy summer of recruitment, Bonner is still expecting Lincoln to pose plenty of questions.

He added: "It's early days for every team really, with a new manager it's certainly early days. But they've got quite good continuity in players, they've added in the window well and I'm confident they'll add again today. We can see they play a certain style. They've scored some goals and played very well.

"It's similar to how he set his Macclesfield team up and Joey (Ironside) played under him for a brief spell so we have little bit of understanding of that, but in the end it's like anything, every team in this league has got good players and those good players in any moment on any day can hurt you. We've seen that when you play the top teams, but you can see it when you play any team.

"We have to be really mindful of that and we had a really tough game at home against Lincoln last year, a very tough game away from home as well where we managed to squeak a win late on.

"It's a different manager and a different set-up in some ways but at the same time there's a lot of those good players that are still available and still playing.

"There a 4-3-3 team, really good in possession and they've got some brilliant midfield and attacking players. They've signed really well in wide areas.

"They'll be a team that want to out-run us, they'll be a team that want to counter-attack, a team that want to break really quickly and cause problems in wide areas. They play with some real attacking pattern so I think with the ball they're an effective team – they'll be a real test."

Cambridge go into the clash having conceded the first goal in six of their previous seven games in all competitions – including Tuesday evening's defeat to Arsenal Under-21s in the Papa John's Trophy.

But while it is not an ideal scenario, Bonner has been pleased with the reaction from his players when faced with a deficit, having last term failed to pick up maximum points after falling behind.

"We've won a couple of those games so it doesn't really matter – in the end goals get scored," he said.

"Last season we didn't win a game coming from behind, this year we've already won two – I'm quite happy with that.

"Obviously we want to be the best team every week but in the end we want to win as many games as we can and we'll do it however it takes."