Cambridge United v Burton Albion: Head coach Garry Monk calls on players to ‘guard against complacency’ after victories against Wigan Athletic and Stevenage

Head coach Garry Monk has warned his Cambridge United players that they cannot afford take Burton Albion lightly on Saturday afternoon.

Like their visitors, the U’s went into last weekend’s round of League One matches yet to record a victory this season. However, while Monk’s side have since gone on to put back-to-back triumphs on the board against Wigan Athletic and Stevenage, a league victory continues to elude bottom-of-the-table Albion, who are now the only winless side in the EFL.

Nevertheless, having looked back over video footage of the Brewers, Monk believes that their performances have warranted more than their return of four draws and seven defeats.

Monk, whose second-from-bottom side are three points better off than Burton, said: “We targeted this week to really gain some points. It’s two down so far and it couldn’t have gone any better in terms of the points tally.

“But we’re really mindful of this game on Saturday. We really have to guard against any complacency, which we are doing.

“When you look at the three games, probably the perception was that the first two were not to be expected in terms of the six-point return, but we’ve got to guard against that feeling of just because it’s Burton and where they are in the league – probably the expectation is we should win this game.

“Of course we’re setting out to try do that, but from an expectation point of view we need to guard against any complacency.

“I don’t know how many people have watched Burton but we’ve watched a lot of them and they’ll have a similar feeling to us in terms of feeling like they’re much better than their league position.

“Looking at their games, they’ve deserved more points than they’ve got. They’re a very good team so we’ll have to be ready and really prepared for that expectation, but also make sure we earn the right to be able to get those points again.”

After Tuesday evening’s 3-2 home defeat at the hands of Wycombe Wanders, the Burton board took the decision to part company with boss Mark Robinson.

And Monk has conceded that Robinson’s departure makes it tougher to predict how this weekend’s opposition are going to set up.

He added: “It makes an element of the preparation slightly more difficult when they’ve just lost their manager.

“What they might change to or do obviously we can’t predict that, but what we try to always do is put most of the focus on ourselves and getting our game right. We want to impose our game on the opposition and that’s the main part of our preparation.

“But we also try to prepare for the what ifs and certain things that might happen with them having a change of management and coaching.”

In team news, striker Ryan Loft is expected to be fit for Burton clash after missing out against Stevenage on Tuesday.