Town face Cambridge United on Saturday in front of another large Portman Road crowd with manager Kieran McKenna hoping for a result which sets up another big must-win game next week.

The Blues go into the visit by the U’s five points off the play-offs with six matches to play, although with the four teams directly above them all having a game in hand and Portsmouth behind them two.

However, Town are on an impressive run of form having been unbeaten in their last 11 and having impressively beaten fourth-placed Plymouth 1-0 at home a week ago.

That game was played in front of a crowd of 23,256 with the club having already sold more than 25,000 seats for this weekend’s fixture.

Asked whether he’s energised by the support and the prospect of crowds potentially getting even bigger as the season reaches its denouement, McKenna said: “That would be great. At the moment we just want to take it a game at a time and set up another big game for us next week.

“We're loving it at the moment, we loved having the Portsmouth game and then having a week to build up to Oxford. And then we loved having the week to build up to Plymouth and we knew what the atmosphere was going to be like last week.

“And obviously getting a good result last week tees-up this weekend really good. That just keeps the pot bubbling at the moment. It keeps the belief in the group, the spirit in the group. It keeps training really intense and really competitive because everybody wants to be involved.

“And we want to keep setting up a couple more of these big games. We have to focus on tomorrow and we have to take care of our business tomorrow.

“And if we can do that, then it sets up another must-win massive game next weekend. And if we win that, then we have another must-win massive game the weekend after that.

“And that's the way it's going to be until the end of the season for us if we're going to have any chance of getting where we'd love to get to.

“The support's been great. The atmosphere has been great. We're really buzzing for it again tomorrow.

“The training ground all week has been a place of really good energy and I think part of that is that everybody's looking forward to getting back to Portman Road again this weekend.

“And we hope that we can give them a performance to get behind and hopefully a result to enjoy.”

Regarding Cambridge, who are 16th, 16 points behind the Blues, McKenna said: “We’re expecting a tough game for a lot of different reasons. Cambridge are a good team, they’ve almost secured their safety at this point I would have thought, or pretty much will have done.

“They’ve developed well under [head coach] Mark [Bonner] over the last two seasons and have established themselves well in the league as well.

“They’ve also had a really good FA Cup run, they beat an almost full-strength Newcastle team [1-0] at St James’ Park three months ago, so if we needed any reminding that there are no guarantees in football and there’s never a moment when you can think that you’re going to have a game which is going to come easily to you, that result is probably a good enough one for us.

“We know that they’re a good team, they’re very consistent in their shape, very consistent in how they go about the game, play with good energy, are aggressive, play balls to the front, have good support around the front, get good bodies in the box for crosses and they’ve shown that they can score goals, as they did against us earlier in the season.

“We’ll be ready for it. The boys have trained ever so well this week, I have to say, their focus and intensity has been really, really good.

“I think and I hope that we’re experienced enough to understand that there’s absolutely no opportunity at this stage to take our eye off the ball or to ease off our intensity one per cent from what it was last weekend, and that’s been the message all through the week and thankfully those messages have been driven from the players as well, not just from myself and the staff.

“I feel that we’re going into the game with a good level of preparation, we’ll give Cambridge the respect that they deserve but I feel like if we get ourselves right, if we are at our best and we take care of all the little details, then I think we’ve got a really good chance of putting in a good performance and going and winning the game.”

He added: “From a good season last year, they’ve really solidified their place in the league this season.

“So credit to Mark and his players and I'm sure they'll want to finish the season off high, and I'm sure they'll see coming to Portman Road as one of the most attractive fixtures for them for the rest of the year.

“And they'll want to come and give a good account of themselves. So we need to be ready for an energetic and motivated team, and we need to be at our best.”

McKenna says the U’s offer something different to most other sides they’ve faced in his 17 games up to now.

“System-wise, I think they’re the first team who play a back four since we played Doncaster and the only other team we’ve played who play a back four normally in the league were Gillingham in the second game,” he recalled.

“Maybe they will change for tomorrow but they’ve been very, very consistent with their shape right through the course of the year.

“It's a different tactical challenge. It's very rare now in the league that you actually come up against a team playing a back four, so that can bring some opportunities, but it can also bring different challenges.

“So tactically it's a little bit different than what we faced the majority of weeks. And again, their strengths are pretty clear to me. They play with a really good energy, they work really hard, their organisation is good. And they get the ball forward pretty quickly and they have a physical striker [Joe Ironside] and they get good support around him.

“They have good bodies in the box and the final third. They’re prepared to put numbers in your box and they're a threat if the ball goes in there.

“For us, we have to try and control the game as well as we can, keep the ball as far away from our goal as we can and make sure that as much of the game as possible is in Cambridge's half with us trying to create opportunities to score.

“And if we do that and we give ourselves a good chance and if Cambridge can manage to turn it into the type of game that they want, then it's going to be a difficult day.”

Like McKenna, Bonner cut his teeth in academy football before progressing from the youth set-up at the Abbey Stadium to taking charge of the senior side.

“I've not come across Mark before, but I'm looking forward to meeting him tomorrow,” the Blues boss said.

“I think we spoke about it a few weeks ago, so to reiterate what I said then, it's good to see more coaches and more managers coming through with that background.

“I think the skillsets from working with the young players are highly, highly transferable to this environment and there are some outstanding young coaches and older coaches in academy football that have the potential if they should so wish to progress to the senior game if those opportunities arise, and hopefully those opportunities will arise more and more in the future.”

McKenna will presumably continue with keeper Christian Walton and his back three of Janoi Donacien, Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess, Town having kept clean sheets in nine of their last 11 games and 12 of McKenna’s 17 in charge.

Wes Burns and Dominic Thompson will be the wing-backs, while skipper Sam Morsy and Tyreeq Bakinson look set to continued as the central midfield pairing.

James Norwood could keep his place as the central striker having made an impact against Plymouth with Macauley Bonne and Joe Pigott the other options.

McKenna will play two from Conor Chaplin, Sone Aluko and Bersant Celina in the number 10 roles.

Cambridge head coach Bonner, whose side will be backed by 2,007 fans at Portman Road, says the game is one of a number against the division’s bigger clubs at this stage of the season, their most recent away game having ended in a 6-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.

“I think when you look at the fixtures at the start, there was certainly a batch at the end of the season that you looked at as headline grabbing fixtures,” Bonner told CambridgeLive.

“They’re ones that players have probably been looking for from the start of the fixture list when they came out, but certainly supporters have been.

“We get a couple of games towards the end of the season where we get to go against some really top teams, some iconic grounds, and it’s certainly one to really look forward to.

“I hope the players thrive in that atmosphere against such a good side that have done so well since Kieran has gone in and taken over the team, and have still got a chance of the play-offs, and we go and give the best account of ourselves, and enjoy the atmosphere and intensity of what the game will look like.

“We know when we play the top teams what these games can be, so it’s certainly one to be at the top of our game for and to be really focused for, and one that over 2,000 Cambridge fans are going to, so I’m sure it’s one that they’re looking forward to as well.”

Reflecting on Town’s form, he added: “They’ve had an incredible number of clean sheets, results and wins, and they’ve made huge progress in the way that they’re playing and the results that they’ve got.

“They’re still in contention for the play-offs, [and] let’s be honest, they should be getting promoted automatically.

“There’s no surprise that they are in the fight for the promotion places, the surprise probably was that they were so far away from that earlier in the season, but they’ve recovered that brilliantly, as you’d expect.

“They’ve got lots of options in the squad and the way in which they’re playing is very good to watch in fairness, so it’s been good watching them in the last week and really trying to study them.”

"Cambridge will be without skipper Greg Taylor, who has been out for most of the season with a fractured ankle.

Left-back Jack Iredale is back in training, also having suffered with an ankle problem, but Saturday’s game seems likely to come too soon for him.

Midfielder Liam O’Neil missed last week’s 1-0 win at AFC Wimbledon due to a dead leg and remains a doubt.

Last Saturday's 1-0 win at AFC Wimbledon was Cambridge's first victory in six matches. Away from home, their record this season reads won five, drawn five, lost 10.

Town have only met Cambridge competitively on six occasions with the Blues winning twice, the U’s twice and with two games, among them the fixture at the Abbey Stadium earlier in the season, ending in draws.

In October, Ironside scored an 88th-minute leveller as the U’s came from two goals behind to draw 2-2 with the Blues at the Abbey Stadium.

Town looked to be coasting to victory after Sone Aluko had netted on 10 and 36, his first Blues goals, but James Brophy pulled one back for the U’s before half-time and the home side completed a deserved comeback when Ironside headed home two minutes from the end.

Town’s wins against Cambridge both came in the Coca-Cola Cup in 1993/94 when goals from Steve Whitton and Simon Milton saw John Lyall’s men to a 2-1 victory at Portman Road in the first leg.

In the second at the Abbey Stadium, Ian Marshall and Chris Kiwomya netted in a 2-0 win.

The only league meetings between the teams prior to this season came in Town’s 1991/92 Second Division title campaign in which the U’s won 2-1 at Portman Road, Mick Stockwell scoring for Town.

The game at the Abbey ended in a controversial 1-1 draw with the home side’s goal having come from Mick Heathcote after a clear foul on Craig Forrest, Milton having given the Blues the lead three minutes earlier.

The first meeting between the clubs was in the Littlewoods Cup in 1986 when Bobby Ferguson’s side were beaten 1-0 at the Abbey Stadium.

The teams have also met regularly in pre-season at the Abbey over the years with the most recent fixture in August 2020 when a goal from former Blue Paul Digby saw Cambridge to a 1-0 victory.

The Cambridge squad includes ex-Blue Jack Lankester, who joined them in the summer from Town.

Lankester, a boyhood Blues fan, came through the academy ranks at Playford Road and went on to make 13 first-team starts and 17 sub appearances, scoring three goals.

Centre-half or midfielder Digby moved to Town from Barnsley in January 2016 before making the switch permanent the following summer. He made a total of seven starts and five sub appearances without scoring.

Cambridge midfielder Shilow Tracey, who moved to the Abbey after being released by Spurs last summer, had a trial at Town in 2015 when a 17-year-old with Ebbsfleet United's academy and featured for the Blues’ U21s.

Town striker Pigott spent 2016/17 on loan with the U’s, scoring once in nine starts and eight sub appearances.

Midfielder Idris El Mizouni has had two spells on loan at Cambridge, the first more successful stint in the second half of the curtailed 2019/20 season and the second in the first half of last season. In total, the Tunisian international made 12 starts and 10 sub appearances for the U’s, scoring one goal.

Saturday’s referee is Craig Hicks from Surrey, who has shown 89 yellow cards and six red cards in 31 games this season.

Hicks’s most recent Town match was the opening day 2-2 draw at home to Morecambe in which he booked Norwood, Matt Penney, Lee Evans and one of the visitors.

He was also at Portman Road in May last year for the FA Youth Cup semi-final against Liverpool which Town’s U18s lost 2-1.

Hicks also took control of the 0-0 draw at Charlton in April 2021 in which he booked Andre Dozzell and two Addicks.

Coincidentally, he was in charge of last season’s home game against the South Londoners in November 2020 in which he booked Stephen Ward, Alan Judge and one visiting player as Charlton won 2-0.

Hicks also refereed the 2-0 win at Bristol Rovers in September of the same year in which he yellow-carded Gwion Edwards, Norwood and two home players.

Prior to that he was in charge of the 0-0 draw at AFC Wimbledon in February 2020 in which he booked Flynn Downes and one home player.

Before that he refereed another 0-0 draw, at home to Gillingham on Boxing Day 2019, in which he showed yellow cards to Judge, Edwards and Norwood and Toto Nsiala.

Hicks’s first competitive Town match was the Leasing.com Trophy tie with Tottenham’s U21s in September 2019 in which he showed just the one yellow card to one of the visitors.

He also took charge of Town’s July 2017 pre-season friendly against Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium, which the home side won 2-1.

The Kent side, who had currently on-loan Blues keeper Tomas Holy in goal, went in front via a soft penalty awarded by Hicks, who kept his cards in his pocket throughout, won by ex-Town midfielder Lee Martin following a challenge by then-Blues captain Luke Chambers and converted by Tom Eaves.

Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Woolfenden, Burgess, Baggott, Burns, Vincent-Young, Thompson, Penney, Morsy, El Mizouni, Carroll, Bakinson, Celina, Aluko, Chaplin, Bonne, Norwood, Pigott, Simpson.

Photo: TWTD

midastouch added 17:41 - Apr 1 I still remember that game when Whitton scored! Marshall, Kiwomya, Milton and Whitton. Fond memories of some of our football during that time.
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dirtydingusmagee added 13:29 - Apr 2 Come on Town , lets get this done, a strong run in will set everything up for next season .
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