Prior to Cambridge United’s Sky Bet League One clash at Portman Road on Saturday (2nd April), Harrison Dunk sat down with local media…
On the character within the dressing room…
“Over the last two years, Bonz and everyone behind the scenes have built a really good atmosphere within the dressing room, whether that’s bringing in the right people who have the right mentality or working on the training pitch.
“We always want to bounce back, we don’t want to dwell on bad results, we’re always just eager to bounce back and learn from them – which I think we’ve done really well over the past two years.
“Our home record this season speaks for itself in the sense that we’ve been very good and consistent. That’s a credit to the fans really who continue to fill it up.
“The fans are always with us; there’s no negativity and we never feel like they’re on our back which really helps us.
“Even away from home, like Sheffield Wednesday, when we didn’t play well, they continued to sing!”
On edging closer to survival…
“I’m not sure many people would have thought we would have been in this position before the season started, and that’s a credit to everyone involved at the club.
“However, we don’t want to rest on our laurels at all, we have seven big games left and we want to finish as high as we possibly can.
“Obviously we’re not mathematically safe, so anything could happen, but we back ourselves to still get ourselves and we want to finish as best as we can and maintain that momentum going into next season.
“The goal is to finish in the top half, as that obviously sounds better [finishing 12th] than finishing 17th or whatever; we want to say that we’re a top half team in League One, which carries its own merit.”
“We want to continue to entertain the fans this season who have been amazing this season!”
On working his way into the squad…
“Jack [Iredale] started the season really well, so I had to bide my time a little bit while being professional as possible, knowing I’d get my chance eventually. I think I’ve done that well to a degree, I think I’ve played well, as have the whole team.
“It was maybe a bit of the opposite last season when I was playing, he maybe had to wait a bit for his chance.
“I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could make the step up, so when I was waiting in the wings I had to just continue to work hard before getting my chance.
“I’ve obviously had my injury problems over the years, but I’ve been working really hard over the past couple of years to make sure I’m in the best possible physical shape I can be, in and out of training.”
On Ipswich Town…
“We have some massive games to come, which is just amazing – but they’re only amazing if we turn up on the day. Obviously Sheffield Wednesday we weren’t good enough so we need to learn from that and make sure we turn up at Portman Road on Saturday.
“There’s a massive gulf of teams, we’re playing against teams that when I was playing in the Conference, they were battling it out in the Premier League, so that’s a bit crazy.
“Not only that but we’re now playing against players that I used to watch on the TV!”