DERRY PLEASED WITH BETTER “BLEND OF TRAINING” THIS WEEK

Shaun Derry says the week without a midweek fixture has allowed the U’s to enjoy a better blend of training ahead of Saturday’s clash with Plymouth Argyle in Sky Bet League Two.

With United playing no less than eight times in the opening month of the campaign, the U’s boss feels the past three days has provided the chance to work in a more structured manner at the training ground.

He said: “The first month of the season was hectic in terms of the number of games that we played, so the midweek without a match has allowed us to have a normal week on the training ground.

“It was certainly a welcome break from the travel, and it’s been important to settle the group after the busy schedule. 

“It’s been great to get the blend of training right again, by doing a gym session in the afternoon with Matt Walker which we did throughout pre-season. The training has certainly been more structured and of course we’ve been able to do more work on the training field as well.   

He continued: “It was nice to come into this spell on the back of a positive ten days. The win at Shrewsbury was great and also saw us get the first clean sheet, and we backed that up last Saturday with another clean sheet against Mansfield.

“It’s been a good ten days and we have to build on that now.”

Discussing the training schedule for the remainder of the week, which includes making the longest away trip of the season to Home Park, Derry added: “We’ll head down on Friday and train half way.

“Bristol City have been fantastic to us when we play down on the south coast and allowed us to use their training venue which is fantastic.

“We’ll set off early, break up the journey by training half way and then complete the journey on Friday before looking forward to what will be a difficult game the next day.”

Tickets and travel for the Plymouth match are available online, in-store and by calling 01223 566 500 today.