“We’ve got to get through this spell with as many points and performances on the board as possible…”
Mark Bonner is wary of the danger Burton Albion will present at the Abbey Stadium on Saturday, but at the same time he remains confident his side can deliver when it matters.
“Beware of the wounded animal. They’re in a position where they’ll scrapping and fighting for everything. Any time when you play Jimmy (Floyd Hasselbaink) and Dino’s (Maamria) teams, we’ve had incredibly tough games physically and we know that’s going to be the same this week.
“One thing I know is we’ll have to be good, aggressive and physically dominant in order to compete in the games and give ourselves a chance. They’ve had a start they want to improve; we’ve had a start that we want to keep building on.”
The Head Coach stated that the night is young in regards to the league table. For some time yet, the division will continue in its unpredictable nature until things take shape. Early signs have been evident, however.
“It’s still early days in terms of number of games played and I don’t think we can evaluate the table too much until we’re probably another five games down the line. However, they’ll certainly want to put right the wrongs of the first few weeks.
“We know they’re going to cause us some issues and we’re going to need to be competitive again, but it’s two league games at home now we want to take a good number of points from if we can.”
Undoubtedly, United need to be switched on from the get go and snatch that momentum in the early stages as the Brewers could latch onto a positive opening spell and frustrate the hosts.
“They’ll certainly be an aggressive-starting team. The key for us is we’re ready for that and then we can be the best team we can and hopefully take some control of the game. We’ll see whether we can discourage them as the game goes on. We know what they are and we’ll have to give the best version of ourselves.
“Over the seven games we’ve played in all competitions I think we’ve looked a good side, carried some threats and been good without the ball. We’ve got to put it all together into a 90-minute performance on Saturday.”
Reflecting on his side’s showing for August, Bonner has been pretty satisfied. On one hand, he understands the significance of chalking up points, but there’s always the underlying feeling that, so long as the performances are there, the table will look after itself with time and the U’s will thrive.
“The number of points is important, it gives you some sort of foundation to build on. We’re halfway through the start of the season I’d say – once we get to the end of the next block of five games, we’ll be able to evaluate where we’re at. To get a similar number of points, that’s the intention.
“There’s areas in which we can improve and get better, but at the same time, we should applaud the progress and some of the performances we’ve had so far.”