Cambridge United v Exeter City: Garry Monk previews ‘crucial’ home League One game for U’s at the Abbey Stadium

Cambridge United have eight home fixtures remaining this season – and head coach Garry Monk believes that the outcome of each of encounter will be ‘crucial’ in determining whether or not the club will be playing League One football against next term.

Of the 23 points that the bottom-of-the-table U’s have collected so far this campaign, 16 of them have come at the Cledara Abbey Stadium.

And with three of their next four fixtures – starting with Exeter City on Saturday – scheduled to be on their own patch, Monk has conceded that his side needs to pick up plenty of positive results from them if they are to bridge the seven-point gap to safety.

“They’re (Exeter) going to want to come here to win to turn their form around, but we need to win for our circumstances,” said Monk. “The only thing that matters is us – that can be our only focus and that’s what we’re trying to do on a daily basis.

“Of course when we train and look at things tactically we have to be aware of what Exeter do and what the players need to do, but the main part is us and our highest levels.

“We’ve shown across the season – but especially more recently – at home we can put in decent performances and get decent results.

“The crowd have been right with it and our responsibility is to give them something to get behind and our crowd’s responsibility – no matter what – is to keep backing the boys and get that type of atmosphere we know the Abbey can be.

“Home games are crucial now until the end of the season to get where we need to get to and certain away games will be crucial against teams in around us.

“There’s no doubt Saturday is a big game, but they’ll all be big games and we need to get it as right as possible.”

Exeter will travel to Cambridge having collected just one point from the last 18 on offer – only Mansfield Town have a worse record during that time.