Manager Nathan Jones has said his team will be taking Saturday’s match ‘very seriously’ as they look to progress into the Emirates FA Cup fifth round.
The gaffer asked for romance in the draw and was given exactly that in the form of an away tie against Cambridge United, a match that was a regular fixture in the last few years.
Competing against each other for the first time since 2017, Jones is expecting his team to be right at it considering the form they currently find themselves in.
“We’re in good form, we’ve trained today, had a real high intensity training session and the boys were at it. One or two that will get an opportunity at the weekend because they need a game, and we need to test them.
“It’s a real good occasion and we want to get into the fifth round, we know that financially it can be beneficial, but we go into every game trying to win it and when we were League Two and League One, we competed well in the Carabao Cup, FA Cup and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. Whatever side we put out, we were always competitive, and we will be taking this very seriously at the weekend.”
The backroom staff will be assessing the fitness of three key players ahead of the game, namely Sonny Bradley, Jordan Clark and Elijah Adebayo, the latter two of which could be in which a chance of returning.
“Sonny is a tricky one because he’s just had the birth of his baby on the weekend so he has a bit of family leave. Jordan Clark is very close, and Elijah is fit, it’s just we made sure he is fresh because we can’t keep flogging him because people forget, he’s young and I know people say he should be about to do this, should be able to do that, but no they’re not.
“Older players are usually more durable or if you talk about late 20’s, that’s when you become durable because you are used to doing stuff, whereas Elijah is fresh, new to Championship football, but he’s played a phenomenal amount of games, he covers a phenomenal amount of distance too. We’ve had to freshen him up because he wasn’t injured, but we just needed to make sure going into the final furlong if you like, that he is as fresh as he can be.
“Not everyone will get a rest but one or two might because of the strength of the squad we have. We have to use people, but we won’t go there weak.”