Cambridge United need to prove their doubters wrong yet again

The jury is still out on Cambridge United.

Of course, the U’s were largely tipped to finish rock bottom of League One by most fans, pundits and bookies. But so far this season, Mark Bonner’s side have continued to upset the applecart and prove their doubters wrong.

Burton Albion were put to the sword in a 3-0 win at The Abbey, albeit in somewhat fortuitous circumstances. Bolton Wanderers, promoted alongside Cambridge last season but with far greater resources, were beaten 1-0 the following week. While a subsequent 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Lincoln City threatened to derail their momentum, they followed it up with their first ever victory at Fratton Park against Portsmouth seven days later.

As a result, expectations were unusually high for their next string of games. They would provide a much different test to what Cambridge have faced so far, coming up against three small sides who’ve established themselves in the third tier. This would be an important benchmark test for the U’s, who would be hoping to follow in their footsteps.

So far, it’s a test that they’ve failed.

By all accounts, their first opponents were not deserving of their league position based on their recent form. Fleetwood Town visited The Abbey on a five match unbeaten run that saw them take points off the likes of Plymouth, Rotherham and Sunderland.

Despite going 1-0 down inside the opening two minutes, the U’s launched a comeback and established a 2-1 lead  five minutes into the second half. They couldn’t hold on, however, as substitute Paddy Lane struck a powerful effort from a narrow angle to send the Cod Army back to Lancashire with a point.

While some may not have expected Cambridge to win that game, they were instilled as firm favourites to beat Gillingham at home the following Tuesday. Steve Evans’ side faced a selection crisis that forced him to play a makeshift back-four, something that the U’s really should’ve capitalised on.

But they didn’t. Bonner’s decision to change from a 4-3-3 formation to a 4-4-2 backfired, with his side making uncharacteristic defensive mistakes and struggling to make any impact in the final third. A 2-0 loss would be the final score, a result that sees Cambridge head into Saturday’s match at Crewe Alexandra winless in their last two games.

This is far from a crisis, but it puts added pressure on the U’s to get a positive result at the Mornflake Stadium. If they don’t pick up three points, it would mean that they’ve failed to win a single one of their ‘winnable’ games against lower-ranked opposition. That would be far from ideal ahead of a nightmarish run of fixtures coming up in October and November.

Underestimating Crewe would be a mistake, and it’s likely one that many fans will fall into. Their tumultuous summer saw their squad ravaged through player sales, with the likes of Charlie Kirk and Ryan Wintle making Championship moves. To add insult to injury, two of their summer signings (Tommie Hoban and Shaun MacDonald) opted to retire from football altogether just weeks after joining the club.

It’s no surprise to see the Railwaymen struggling, and their league position is reflective of what they’ve had to face in the last few months. But David Artell’s side have shown a lot of spirit to pick up positive results in hope of climbing out of the bottom four as soon as possible.

Crewe have avoided defeat in three of their last four games, picking up their first win of the season against Burton in mid-September. It was seen as almost a foregone conclusion that they’d lose their subsequent away games at Rotherham United and Plymouth Argyle, but they instead ground out consecutive 1-1 draws to frustrate their high-flying opponents.

However, if recent history is anything to go by, Cambridge will have the upper hand.

Since the two teams were reunited in League Two in 2016, the U’s have won five of their seven games against the Alex, who in turn have won just one encounter since 1995. Their most recent meeting came in September 2019, the season Crewe were promoted, where Cambridge won 3-2 thanks to an incredibly controversial penalty scored by Sam Smith.

Smith, who has since returned to The Abbey on a permanent basis, is unlikely to be given the start against the Railwaymen on Saturday. It seems inevitable that Bonner will revert to the 4-3-3 formation that has worked so well so far this season. The clash will likely come too soon for Wes Hoolahan, who is yet to train after suffering injuries to his chest and knee.

Of course, Cambridge will be desperate to improve on the goalscoring front after failing to find the back of the net for the first time this season against Gillingham. However, the priority has to be to eradicate the embarrassing defensive errors that allowed Evans’ side to take the points on Tuesday evening.

The U’s will be facing Mikael Mandron, a striker who registered 11 goals in League One last season and has had to take the burden of Crewe’s goalscoring impetus following the departures of key attacking players over the summer. If they make the same mistakes in Cheshire on Saturday afternoon, they may well leave empty handed and winless in their last three games.

Cambridge have done incredibly well to prove the doubters wrong so far this season, but their recent blip has seen their relegation odds cut and as they continue to drop down the League One table. This may be reactionary, but proves that the U’s need a win to keep the infectious optimism going.

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