All eyes may be on the FA Cup fifth round tie with Bolton but Roy McFarland's attention is fixed firmly on next weekend's visit of fellow strugglers Chesterfield. After watching his side grind out an edgy goalless draw at Reading, he referred to Saturday's game as a "must-win match".

"If we couldn't beat Reading, it was very important we didn't lose," he told the Cambridge Evening News. "We made sure Reading didn't get any further away from us, and it makes Chesterfield an even bigger match now. If we can beat them this draw will become a very good result, but we have to follow it up. If we'd lost to Reading they would have been eight points above us, a substantial gap."

The game was there for the taking by either side, with both playing cautiously and United defending soundly and in numbers. Martin Butler and Trevor Benjamin were marked closely by the Reading defence and McFarland lamented the lack of support they got from midfield, saying, "We had most of the match in the first half, but we didn't make enough of it.

"In training the midfield players don't hesitate to shoot, but when they got into decent positions they were always looking to pass. But it was a clean sheet, which we haven't had too many of, and the draw will maintain confidence after the Cup win at Wrexham."

He added that Reading's £600,000 striker Nicky Forster caused problems when he came off the bench for the second half, saying, "He gave us some problems. We had to re-arrange, and we couldn't get as much of the ball in attack as we did in the first half."