Harrogate Town v Cambridge United: Sulphurites must 'stop' high-flyers' 'flow'

While the Sulphurites find themselves rooted to the foot of the table and five points from safety after 20 games without a victory, the U's have been flying up the division.

Indeed, by complete contrast to Simon Weaver's struggling side, Cambridge are the fourth tier's form team, and currently sit in third place following a 14-match unbeaten streak, which has included six victories in their last six outings.

And Town’s manager knows that his players are going to have to disrupt the “flow” of this weekend’s visitors to Wetherby Road if they are to end an abysmal losing run on home soil that stretches all the way back to mid-September.

"We are certainly looking forward to this game, although we know that Cambridge are flowing at the minute, and we have got to stop that flow,” Weaver told BBC Radio York.

"There are still aspects of the performance where we can tighten up, and if we can do that, we can hopefully do what we did to Swindon [on Tuesday night] and disrupt them massively.

"Neil Harris is a great guy and a manager who I respect hugely. And he has got Cambridge rocking, but my job is to make sure that we stop their flow, and we get in amongst them and upset them.

"But, we have got to be ourselves. It's not just about stopping them, it's about us getting into a flow as best we can given the circumstances, and scoring some goals at home."

The positive news for Harrogate is that Cambridge men have generally been much better at home - where they have won 10 and drawn three of their 14 league fixtures - than they have on their travels.

However, they have come out on top in each of their previous three away fixtures and followed up wins at Chesterfield and Fleetwood with a 3-0 success over Oldham Athletic on Saturday.

And, while Neil Harris’ men have been scoring plenty of late, they also boast the division's best defensive record, with just 22 goals conceded in the league so far this term.

The clubs have only met three times before in competitive games, with this season's meeting at the Abbey Stadium ending 1-1 in August after Stephen Duke-McKenna cancelled out Louis Appere's early opener.

The only previous encounter between the teams at Wetherby Road came towards the back end of the 2020/21 campaign - Town's first in the Football League.

And that match was an absolute thriller, ending 5-4 in favour of the hosts as Brendan Kiernan hit a hat-trick to delay Cambridge's eventual promotion to League One.

Naturally, Weaver and his troops would love a repeat of that result this Saturday, but if they are to pull off what would be an almighty upset, they will have to do so without as many as nine first-team regulars.

Winger Ellis Taylor (thigh) and centre-half Anthony O’Connor (hand) were both fit enough to return to Town’s squad for Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Swindon, while defender Chanse Headman (ankle) could be okay to play some part against the U’s.

But, goalkeeper Mark Oxley, defenders Bobby Faulkner and Tom Bradbury, midfielders Ben Fox, Tom Hill and Levi Sutton, plus forwards Mason Bennett, Shawn McCoulsky and Duke-McKenna are all expected to miss out through injury.