Joe Dunne will not allow any personal sentiment to affect his focus when his former club Colchester United travel to the Abbey Stadium tomorrow.

That is the view of Cambridge United manager Shaun Derry, who believes his assistant Dunne will be only thinking about his current club and not his former employers when the two sides meet in League Two this weekend.

Dunne made nearly 200 league and cup appearances for Colchester as a player and also managed them for two years, along with serving them as an assistant manager, reserve-team coach and youth-team coach.

Dunne’s son Louis is also at the U’s but boss Derry says his number two will just be aiming to help Cambridge secure victory.

Derry said: “I think that’s only natural when you come against your old side, you want to do well on a personal level.

“But Joe is probably the most professional man I’ve met in football bar none.

“He’s so professional that he’ll just look at this weekend’s game only from the angle of Cambridge United and not from his own personal reasons nor Colchester neither.”

Just four points separate ninth-placed Colchester and Cambridge, who are 12th in the League Two table.

“We’re up against a Colchester team that’s got relegated out of League One, a team that’s got League One players and their performances have been similar to ours this year,” added Derry.

“I think they’ll be slightly disappointed in terms of the way their season has gone with ups and downs.

“We’re just looking at the Colchester game and we’ll try to produce a performance that hopefully maximises the points.

“John McGreal was a good player and I’ve got a lot of respect for him, not just as an ex-player but as a person as well, he’s a good guy and he’s doing a good job.

“He has grabbed hold of the reins at Colchester where there’s been a lot of disturbance in terms of managerial positions since Joe Dunne left so for me, we have to hold not just John but the football club with the greatest deal of respect.

“He has got a style of play he’s trying to formulate at this minute in time, but it takes time.

“He’ll probably be echoing my thoughts on management and saying it feels like he’s only just got started, so I think the key thing for us is that we look at our own house."