Cambridge United out to keep play-off hopes alive against Crawley Town

Victory vital for U's against Imps

Nothing less than three points against Crawley Town will be good for Cambridge United if they are to continue their quest for the Sky Bet League Two play-offs.

That is the view of manager Shaun Derry as they prepare for the final home game of the season at the Cambs Glass Stadium on Saturday.

The U’s are 11th in the table, three points off the final play-off place, which is currently occupied by Stevenage. After Crawley, they travel to Wycombe Wanderers on May 6.

“We need two wins,” said Derry. “It starts on Saturday against a team that’s secured their stability in this division but that’s not to say it’s going to be a foregone conclusion because we know it’s not.

“Dermot (Drummy, the Crawley manager) is going to arrive here with his own agenda and what we’ve got to make sure is that by hook or by crook we get the three points.

“Anything less than that, then we know that the season’s come to an end.

“But to take the second season that I’ve been in charge in – the first full season – to the penultimate game of the season, to still be in and around a chance of getting into the top seven, considering where this football club ended in its first season back as a league club, I think everybody would have taken that as a largely successful season.

“Whenever you have a disappointment like we have in recent weeks with certain results, there has always been a positive – you look at the league table and you see that we’re three points off.”

And their position in the table comes despite starting the season without a win in their first eight games.

“I think any Cambridge United fan, any journalist or anybody connected with the city looking where we were in the first eight games and looking where we are now, everybody would say what a fantastic six to seven months we’ve had,” he said.

“We need to make sure that at the end of the 90 minutes on Saturday that we’ve done ourselves justice, hoping the crowd get right behind the boys and make sure it is a formidable place to play.

“This is the place we want to be – we want to be fighting for the top seven, and we’ve done that for the majority of the season so I’m really pleased.”