Defeated U's back on the road against relegation threatened Crawley Town

U's news

The U's were beaten for the first time in League Two since October following a 2-1 defeat against Harrogate. Harris will be determined to get back to winning ways tomorrow against Crawley. Following the defeat, the U's drop to 5th, but still only 2 points away from automatic promotion. With a game in hand and 4 points away from 2nd place Notts County who face league leaders Bromley on Valentine's Day.

Crawley Town

Crawley have won 2 of their last 5, with wins over Barrow and Harrogate, but despite this sit 20th and 5 points above the drop into the National League. Although 14 teams separate the 2 sides, Cambridge United have only scored 7 more goals in the League than Crawley. That being said Crawley have conceded exactly double the amount as Harris' side.

Head 2 Head

In the previous 5 fixtures including these sides, Crawley have won just 2 games coming in 2020 and 2024. In only 3 of the previous 17 games spanning 16 years has the game saw only 1 goal. The U's won the reverse fixture in October with goals from Lavery, Mpanzu and Kouassi despite the U's having just 28% possession.

Keys for victory

With an average of 58.5% possession in their league matches, Crawley will ask a lot of questions of the United defensive block. With Crawley playing a 3-5-2, an overload out wide would put pressure on a midfielder to come across to help numerically. The U's can than efficiently switch the ball to the weak side and form great attacks from there. From wide areas you should expect a lot of crosses into the box as all 3 projected centre backs are all under 6ft tall whereas Appere and Nevitt are both over 6ft.