INTERVIEW: SHAUN DERRY
Cambridge United manager Shaun Derry is pleased to have seen his side take the bull by the horns in recent weeks and looks ahead to this weekend’s clash with Stevenage in Sky Bet League Two.
With the U’s looking to extend their current unbeaten run to five games at the Lamex Stadium on Saturday, the United boss has hailed the positive mood currently thriving through the first team. However, Derry explains that there has been a real element of self-drive from the U’s across a number of weeks.
He said: “The mood within the group has always been positive and credit should be given where credit is due, even when we have had back-to-back losses or it hasn’t gone our way, there was a good mentality.
“The players have actually driven themselves on during the last six or seven weeks, and it’s important that takes place.
“The will to want to achieve can’t always come from the coaching staff, it has to come from within and that’s what we expect from the boys Monday to Friday on the training ground and on a Saturday afternoon.”
Backed by a travelling support expected to be in excess of 1,200 fans, the U’s will face a Stevenage side who recently appointed Darren Sarrl as their new first team manager. His arrival to the Boro hot seat creates the peculiar statistic of the U’s lining up against the fourth club in 2016 to have switched manager, which Derry admitted to have not experienced in football before.
He said: “It really has worked out quite bizarrely and I’ve not seen it before, when it seems we are facing a team with a new manager week after week. That causes a slight problem, because rightly or wrongly people raise the bar when playing under a new manager.
“We understand this weekend’s fixture with Stevenage would already pose a difficult challenge, before throwing into the equation Darren Sarrl as their new manager.
“But once again we’ll be focussed on producing a display in which we can play on the front foot and take the game to Stevenage.”
Tickets for the game are available online, with a limited number now remaining and Cambridge United advising the Amber Army to buy in advance.