Monday 24th April 2000 : Colchester match reactions and Preston preview

Cambridge United skipper Paul Wanless has warned that the U's will struggle to stay in Division Two if Saturday's performance at Colchester is repeated.

Champions-elect Preston North End visit the Abbey today in search of a point to guarantee promotion, but ahead of the big match Wanless warned, "If we keep on playing like that, we won't get out of relegation trouble."

He told the Cambridge Evening News, "Nobody could say they had a good game. The conditions were bad, the pitch was waterlogged in places, but it was the same for both sides. You can get by if two or three players are having an off day, but not if the whole team has one, and that's what happened.

"We had one chance to get into the match when we pulled a goal back early in the second half, but we let Colchester score a few minutes later. It was very disappointing. We all know we have to do a lot better than that in the last few games."

Roy McFarland pointed to the clear handball incident just before Colchester's second goal as a turning point in the match: "There was a blatant handball, the player was beaten and he put his hand up to control the ball. The referee was no more than 10 yards away," he complained to the CEN.

"That was a valid excuse, but we didn't play well, all the way through from the goalkeeper to Trevor Benjamin. We just didn't perform on the day. We didn't look settled at the back, Colchester's second goal was a gift, we should have cleared the ball comfortably. And we missed Scott Eustace in there. The third goal, after we got back into it, was totally and utterly poor defending. If we carry on like that without doubt we're going to have a problem.

"It's probably good that we have this game against Preston almost straight away. Even though they look like being champions. There should be a tremendous atmosphere at the Abbey, and usually we raise our game in those situations."

United will be boosted by a large crowd for the all-ticket game, and the return from suspension of defender Scott Eustace which gives McFarland the options to reshuffle Saturday's nervous-looking defence.

Preston have refused to tempt fate by packing the champagne for today's trip south, and assistant manager Kelham O’Hanlon told the Lancashire Evening Post, "It’s not a question of being superstitious. There’s plenty of time to celebrate once the job has been done. We have a chance at Cambridge. But there are still two games to go after that.

"We aren't taking anything for granted until the mathematics say we can’t be caught. That’s why we won't be taking any champagne with us. We certainly wouldn't tempt fate in that respect at all."

North End expect to be without top scorer Jonathan Macken this afternoon. The 25-goal marksman limped off against Scunthorpe after 31 minutes suffering from a hamstring strain. "It was only a slight tweak and we won’t know the extent of for a couple of days," said O’Hanlon.