Monk demands more character from winless Cambridge

Garry Monk has been in charge of Cambridge United since March

Cambridge United boss Garry Monk insists only "character and personality" can lift the team out of their current predicament at the bottom of League One.

The U's have only taken one point from their first seven leagues games and were beaten 2-0 at home by Lincoln City on Saturday.

They now face Steve Evans' Rotherham United at the Cledara Abbey Stadium on Tuesday and Monk believes it is vital they stop conceding "cheap" goals.

"Your duty is to work hard, take what's coming at you and you're either going to fight or you're going to flight - and my mentality has always been to fight," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

"I think they are fighting but confidence is a little bit lower than it should be. There's only one way out of it, you have to show huge character and personality, and I think we've done that in a lot of the games. That's the only option you have.

"They are a really good bunch to work with and do care about what they're doing."

Cambridge only kept their League One status by the skin of their teeth in 2022-23, but finished 18th last season following Monk's appointment in March.

Major changes to the squad were made over the summer, but a number of injuries have been a contributory factor in their disappointing start.

"Second half especially (against Lincoln) was as poor as we've been. We had a lot of the ball but we didn't do anywhere near enough to warrant getting back in the game or to create opportunities like we can," said Monk.

"It's a mixture of quite a few things, the situation we're in, when you're not winning games you need really strong character and personality to come out the other side of it and give yourselves a building block."

Cambridge have conceded 15 goals in League One - more than any other team in the third tier - and are yet to keep a clean sheet in any of their 10 games, in league and cup.

"No-one's done enough this season to say the shirt's mine and that's why there's been a bit of manoeuvring around, you're trying to find a combination that can maybe have a period of solidarity in our defensive actions and we haven't got that," Monk added.