U’s Head Coach Mark Bonner spoke to local press this morning ahead of Cambridge United’s clash with Morecambe on Tuesday…
On Morecambe
“They are a strong side. They came up with us, but they have had a lot of changes over the summer, a change of manager as well as lots of new players arriving, so some slightly different challenges we will have to prepare for from last season.
“Morecambe will be slightly disappointed with their current run of form but similarly to Doncaster and Shrewsbury, their home form is excellent, and they have picked up some brilliant results. We know how tough of a game it is going to be tomorrow and we have to give ourselves the best chance of going and getting something from the game to keep adding to the total that we are on.”
Team News
“We will see everybody this morning and work our way from there. I think whatever team we end up playing – we had to shuffle the pack a little bit last week against Doncaster and ended up putting in a really good performance, taking something from the game – we have shown we can still be competitive regardless of the situation.
“George Williams has picked up five yellow cards so will miss the game.”
“Dimi [Mitov] will train with the team today so all being well will be available for tomorrow, which is great news.
“Jack [Lankester] started against Crewe a couple of weeks ago so we know that he can step in if needed, we are just trying to get him up to speed which has been hard as we have not trained so much recently because of games.”
On international breaks
“This is all new ground for us really, I guess the lesson for us to learn is to have a pre-planned calendar and work out where the international weekends are. Let’s be fair though, no one in a million years would ever have thought Cambridge United against Morecambe would be called off because of international call-ups!
“Maybe one thing that should be considered is that, the last international break there was only three League One games that were not postponed, and every game in League Two continued, so there is clear split there and maybe just having international breaks in League One would be easier and smoother to organise.”
On the season so far
“We have made a good start; we are probably on track for where we thought we might be. We have lost the fewest number of games outside the top eight in the league, and I know everyone panics when we draw games but there have actually been some great draws in there.
“We are making progress and we are learning on the way. We know that we have some monster challenges ahead.
“I think we have shown ability to adapt to different scenarios and different situations, which is the pattern of the season, I am sure it will play out similarly throughout the next 30 games but we just have to keep being the same flexible team and group of people that we are.”