Preview Saturday’s season opener at the Abbey Stadium.
Cambridge United are set to kick off their 2015/16 Sky Bet League Two season against Newport County tomorrow afternoon at the Abbey Stadium.
New arrivals Barry Corr, Leon Legge, Keith Keane and new club captain Mark Roberts are all on course to make their League debuts for the club. A total of 11 new players have joined United over the summer, with the six month loan signing of George Taft from Burton Albion last week completing the U’s summer business to date.
United manager Richard Money is likely to be without Luke Berry and Robbie Simpson who both picked up knocks in last weekend’s final pre-season friendly against Peterborough United, whilst Rory Gaffney will also be unavailable for selection despite reaching the latter stages of his recovery.
Newport will arrive at the Abbey Stadium hoping to get their campaign up and running, in which they will be looking to replicate and build upon a season last year that saw the Exiles finish comfortably in the top half of the League table.
Despite beginning last year around the relegation zone, the welsh side suddenly burst into life to climb the League ladder and eventually complete the campaign in ninth position.
Like the U’s, County have experienced a busy summer’s business on the field since the conclusion of 2014/15, with 15 players departing Rodney parade and ten new players arriving to bolster new manager Terry Butcher’s options for the forthcoming campaign.
With over 2,100 season tickets sold for the new season, an unprecedented number of replica shirts sold and a bumper crowd expected to pack out the refurbished Abbey Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the U’s will return to Football League action with a bang.
Looking ahead to the season opener, Manager Richard Money said: “When you come back in for the first day of pre-season, the first game of the season feels a long way away and then when it is upon, it would seem the pre-season has flown by.
“We have had a low key week in preparation for the match, with the previous five weeks being really quite intense in which we purposely played some tough opposition.
“There is no doubt that Newport will also be well prepared. Terry is a very experienced manager and I’m sure that his side will come to Cambridge and make our lives very difficult for us.
“Playing our first game on home soil is certainly a benefit if we get the right result, so the key thing for us is to not worry too much about where we are playing but to put all the processes in place to give us every chance of winning.
“We’ll aim to play as well as we can and then the crowd behind us is going to be real bonus, there is no doubt about that.”
Tickets for game are available online right now, whilst shop hours have been extended this evening to 7pm for those just finishing work.
Meanwhile Cambridge United youngster Danny Burns has joined Cambridge City on a one month loan deal.
The 18-year old first year development player missed the whole of the 2014/15 season with a broken leg sustained in a pre-season friendly last July, and makes the switch to gain valuable game time at a good level, in order to aid his long-term development.