A stuttering start to their League Two campaign saw the Abbeymen fall to two home defeats in quick succession as they struggled to find the back of the net.
A late equaliser from Gary Deegan gave Cambridge a much-needed lift as they claimed a point at Northampton to kick start their campaign midway through August, and they have since picked up victories against Port Vale and Stevenage to help them with their climb up the table.
The U’s finished in mid-table last time out, with a 64-point haul, and they’ll be looking to build on that having made some very attack minded summer signings.
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It feels like déjà vu ...
The U’s have a trio of very familiar faces in their ranks with former Blues David Amoo, Jabo Ibehre and Reggie Lambe within their ranks.
27-year-old winger David Amoo spent two seasons with United prior to a move north of the border, before he headed to the Abbey two summers ago. He notched 13 goals in 79 appearances for the Cumbrians.
Reggie Lambe, also 27, is the most recent of the departures having moved on from Brunton Park at the end of last season. The popular Bermudan playmaker scored 14 goals in his 90 games for United.
Speaking of popular, Jabo Ibehre, the man we dubbed the Islington Assassin, exploded onto the Cumbrian scene with 12 goals before Christmas during his first season with the club in 2015/16. He went on to make it 31 goals in 85 appearances as he won the hearts of United’s fans.
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Manager’s thoughts
Speaking ahead of the game, United boss John Sheridan said: “Every game in this league is tough, and Cambridge will be no different.
“I only worry about us and how we’re going to play. I went into the game against Mansfield last Saturday feeling confident, but we didn’t really turn up, so I’ll have to get a little bit more out of them on Saturday.
“We’ll go there feeling confident and we know that if we’re on our game we’ll give anyone a good test.”
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Comments from Joe Dunne following Tuesday night’s defeat to Southend ...
“I was disappointed to lose the game in the manner we did, but we’ll take what we can from it. There were some good moments – the goal and one or two other moments.
“I thought we defended well in the first half, which was quite pleasing, but it’s a disappointed changing room as we felt we had enough quality to win it.
“There were some positives, but it’s just disappointing to have lost another game. When you make changes you want that team to keep up and maintain what we did on Saturday.
“We’ll talk about it and go forward into the Carlisle game looking to build on what we did at Stevenage last week.”
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Did You Know?
+ The club were originally known as Abbey United, before changing their name to Cambridge United upon turning professional in 1949.
+ In 1984/85 equalled the record for the most defeats in a season - 33 - which was then surpassed by Derby County in 2008.
+ Cambridge have experimented with shirts of full amber in the past, but have always reverted to the traditional black and amber designs.
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Head to Head
The clubs have met a total of 28 times in all competitions and honours couldn’t be more even if they tried. Eight wins each and 12 draws … so will something give one way or the other this weekend?
| Carlisle wins | Draws | Cambridge wins | |
| League | 8 | 12 | 8 |
| Total | 8 | 12 | 8 |
Last season saw United edge in front courtesy of a neat finish from Reggie Lambe, when the sides met at the Abbey in August, but Medy Elito levelled from the spot just six minutes later. Carlisle kept going and Tom Parkes scored his first goal for the club, accompanied by a celebratory dab, to earn the visitors all three points.
Watch the highlights of that game here:
Cambridge came to Brunton Park in March to put things right but the deadlock in a tight game was broken by Richie Bennett when he scored from close range following a cut back from Mark Ellis just after the break. However, the celebrations had barely subsided when George Maris scored the point making equaliser just over 120 seconds later.
Watch the highlights of that game here:
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Man in the middle:
The referee for this game is Mr Ollie Yates. Ollie has refereed four league fixtures so far this season, showing a total of 14 yellow cards.
Now in his third season as an EFL referee, we have had him as our main match official just once before, for a 3-1 home win over Crawley back in October 2016. Jabo Ibehre, Jason Kennedy and Luke Joyce [yes, THAT wonder strike] scored our goals, and Mark Ellis was the only Carlisle player to be booked on the day.
Referee – Ollie Yates
Assistant Referee 1 – Leigh Crowhurst
Assistant Referee 2 – Andrew Williams
Fourth Official – Adrian Waters
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Ticket information:
At time of going to press, United have sold 150 away tickets for this fixture.
Click HERE for full match ticket information.
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