Cambridge United head coach Garry Monk has called on his players to deliver a ‘real response’ to last weekend’s derby humiliation when they host Barnsley at the Cledara Abbey Stadium on Saturday.

The U’s made their short trip to London Road in good form, making it five straight wins without conceding a goal in all competitions.

However, all this defensive solidity evaporated as a furious Posh team scored four goals without reply in a 19-minute period of the first half and eventually resumed play. win the contest 6-1.

And Monk has urged his side to use all the disappointment and pain from that result as motivation to turn things around against a Barnsley side who currently sit fourth in League One.

“Last week was a terrible result for us. It’s the nature of what we do when things like this happen that you have to bounce back quickly,” Monk said.

“You have to focus on the future but not forget what happened. We put it in the box at the beginning of the week about what this means to us and what it means to us. We are trying to have a real response in this game (against Barnsley); This is the only action we have left after such a result.

“It was disappointing after a period of really good results and performances – of course it was. “We tried to isolate in that sense, but we also understood that there had to be a response.

“We are suffering individually, but so are our fans. We focused on that this week and tried to translate that into what comes out on Saturday. That’s how football works.”

After such a demoralizing result, some managers will be tempted to make changes to the starting XI.

Injuries and international call-ups Monk’s ability to do this was limited to some extent, but he still insisted that wholesale changes were not necessary.

He added: “These situations are all different and it depends on what kind of group you have. “I have no reservations about this group and even in that period where we didn’t get the right results there were players who played the following week.

“I don’t think the performance level ever dropped to a terrible level. Last week’s result was terrible, but ultimately it’s terrible performances that change your mind as a manager when each individual performance is well below their level.

“There’s always a balancing act and things going on in your head; You even think that way after you win. I experienced this during a three-game week when we won all three. What will you do in the second game? Are you making changes for freshness or are you doing it in the third game? I learned a lot from that game.

“There are always things that happen when you think about changes, it’s not just when you lose a game. And even if you lose the game to a pretty bad scoreline, it depends on what kind of group you have. They’re a good group and nobody is a team that we don’t think is good enough.” will not perform without enough effort or unwillingness to perform, there will be quality or individual mistakes and circumstances in those moments.

“We have a really good, really motivated group that understands this. There’s no need for that kind of situation (where you make bulk changes) here. In other teams I’ve had it wasn’t good enough and you have to make changes. “There’s a lot of elements that go into (team selection) and sometimes it’s not just about losing, it’s also about winning.”

Barnsley head to Cambridge on a high note looking to move into the play-off positions having gone unbeaten in their last four league games, and it is no surprise to Monk to see the Tykes on the rise.

“They are physically strong and their defensive unit is solid. “They have athleticism, they are quality and they have good legs in the forward areas,” he said.

“I expect them to be where they are in the league. You’ve seen them at this level in recent seasons, they’re generally a strong team and always fighting for promotion places. “This season is no different and I expect to see them do what they do.

“But I think we did our best and we have to be the best. We can’t be a 95 percent team, we have to be 100 percent and everything is consistently going at the right level for us.

“We know this even better after last week’s result. But I expect to see it and the players are preparing this way, they understand it. We will have to be at our best in this match, but we are at home and we have been good at home in the last few weeks.

“There’s a lot of motivation for us no matter who we play against. We’ve played tough games at home and we’ve overcome that.”