The joy of last night's win against Bristol City, which lifted the U's out of the relegation zone, has been tempered by the news that it was hamstring trouble which forced Neil Mustoe off early in the second half.

The busy midfielder has been increasingly influential in recent weeks and was voted Player of the Month for February by U's Net visitors, but his loss will be a big blow to an already-stretched squad.

"We are probably talking about a three week lay-off," Roy McFarland told the Cambridge Evening News. "It would be a bonus if Muzzy was back in a fortnight.

"It's a blow to lose another player who was in very good form," he added, "but there is great spirit in the squad and we'll keep going. We are never let down by the players who come in as replacements."

By way of example he pointed to centre half Marc Joseph who was pressed into service as an emergency left-back after Tom Cowan was ruled out with a twisted ankle: "I didn't tell Marc Joseph he was playing against Bristol until an hour before the kick off. I didn't want him worrying about playing out of position at left-back. And he came in to do an excellent job.

"As did Tom Youngs, a right-sided player we had to use on the left. The lad gets knocked about at times, but he always looks like he's going to get you a goal."

Youngs scored two from an unfamiliar position, his third and fourth in the last eight games, and could have had more against a Bristol City side who were swept aside by the powerful midfield combination of Paul Wanless and Ian Ashbee.

Mustoe joins Cowan, Clive Wilson, Alex Russell, Steve Guinan and Andy Duncan in a busy treatment room as McFarland's options become increasingly limited at an important time of the season.

He was pleased with last night's performance, saying, "It was a good all round performance. We had discipline and control, we avoided the errors we made in the last couple of home matches, and we could easily have had more goals, as well as a penalty or two. Now we are straight into a very big game at Scunthorpe on Saturday, which we'll be up for."

Scunthorpe pulled off a shock with their 2-1 win at Millwall last night and they stay four points clear of United, but Cardiff City, Oxford United, and Blackpool all lost which enabled the Us to climb above them and out of the relegation zone, albeit on goal difference, for the first time since October.

Ian Ashbee told the CEN, "A lot of people have written us off, but we've never given it up and we won't. Now that we're out of the bottom four we are going to stay out."