PLAYER PREVIEW | MARIS ON U’S ABILITY TO TOUGH IT OUT

As the U’s return to Sky Bet League Two action on Saturday, George Maris reflects positively on the team’s ability to grind out the results in their more recent league fixtures which has seen them moving upwards.

“When we look at our last few games in the league, we have been digging in more,” said the 22-year old.

“It’s probably fair to say when we played teams like Grimsby and Macclesfield who are teams around us at the minute, it turned into a bit of a dog fight. But we showed that we could fight and got two good results.

“Six points from two games was definitely a step in the right direction. We need to continue that.”

Heading into the clash at Boundary Park against Oldham this weekend, Maris feels it is key United focus on extending their purple patch in their league form and strive to build on Tuesday’s Checkatrade Trophy win to put behind them the disappointment of Guiseley last Sunday.

“We were going well before we went into the game with Guiseley and that game was a blow. We’ve had to pick ourselves up, and I thought we started to do that on Tuesday with a win against a good Colchester side.

“We were thankful to have the game on Tuesday otherwise it would have felt like a really long week. The goals that were scored were good quality and that has brought some confidence back into the team after the weekend.

“Overall we have picked up some decent results in the league too and we want that to continue on Saturday. It’s been important that when performances haven’t been quite where we want them to be, we have managed to still pick up points in the league in recent weeks.

“Once we then start to play some of our best football again, which we have done at stages this season, then hopefully that will see us continue to gather the points.”

Tickets for Saturday’s match against Oldham Athletic will be available on the day from Boundary Park for travelling U’s fans.