Mark Bonner calls for Cambridge United to be strong and aggressive at Shrewsbury Town in Sky Bet League One
Mark Bonner is expecting Cambridge United to face a physically tough challenge at Shrewsbury Town in Sky Bet League One on Saturday (October 23).
Having held two of the division’s ‘super-powers’ - Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday - to draws at the Abbey Stadium in the last week, they take to the road for only the fifth time out of 13 so far this season.
They head to a Shrewsbury side that are in the bottom four, but all three of their wins have come at the New Meadow.
“We want to try to make sure, fundamentally, we follow-up two really good home points with some points on the road over the next couple of games,” said United head coach Bonner.
“It will be a good game for us against a team whose home form has not been too bad.
"Their wins have come at home this year so we know what we’re going into there and we will get some work done over the next few days to be as best prepared as we can be for it.
“You look at the run of games that we’ve had and previous games we’ve had this year, we take no game for granted at all.
“We know we’re the new-boys at the level and we’re competing with everybody.
“We’ve got to make sure we go to Shrewsbury this weekend and are ready for a team that’s got some very good individuals, that can be a real threat on their day, they are a powerful team, a direct team, they have a manager with bags of experience and they’ve had some good results at home this year.
“We’ve got to find the level again that we found in the last two games and back up some good performances again.”
The teams faced each other in the first round of the FA Cup last year, when Shrewsbury were struggling in League One and United were flying high in League Two.
Charlie Daniels and Brad Walker scored from outside the box to give the Shrews a 2-0 win at the Abbey, but they have undergone big changes since then, with Steve Cotterill taking over from Sam Ricketts as manager, to keep them in League One, and a raft of new players.
But they have lost four of their last five league games, with the win coming at home to MK Dons last Saturday.
“They have been a back three for a lot of the season but changed to a back four at Oxford on Tuesday night [which was a 2-0 defeat],” said Bonner.
“They have got some real power in the team, some real experience, some good players in the defensive line and an aggressive and big strike-force.
“We expect they will make us defend our box, we expect they will get the ball into the front of the team. We’re going to have to be strong and aggressive to defend those situations and see where and how we can be dominant with the ball.
“It will be an interesting game. If they play with the front two that they have been quite often - it was interesting that we’ve played against that in the last couple of games and is something we’ve seen less of in the period of time we’ve been in the league so far - it’s a different challenge for centre-backs.
“But I actually think we’ve dealt with two really good front twos very well in the last couple of games and we need to make sure we do that again at the weekend.”
Read more
Cambridge United await outcome of tests on Liam O’Neil injury
