Reggie Lambe believes the Sky Bet League Two play-offs should be the “minimum” requirement for Cambridge United this season.

Cambridge are eleventh in the table, six points outside the top seven heading into the busy festive period during which they will play four matches in 11 days.

Lambe feels Cambridge should take encouragement from their 1-1 draw away to third place Cheltenham Town last weekend and is confident his team can mount a sustained challenge for the play-offs when key players return from injury.

“The minimum for us should be the play-offs,” Lambe told Cambridgeshire Live. “We have enough in the team to push on, I think most of the players are coming back fit.

“We’ve still got a few more out, but once they come back, I think we have a full-strength team that can easily push us into [the play-offs]. The way we played [against Cheltenham], in the first half, is the basis of what we can achieve.

“If we can do that consistently throughout the entire game, we will be a handful for teams to deal with. [With players like] Ricco [Marc Richards] still to come back and Tafty [George Taft] to come back — I think once we have those players back and everyone is fighting for positions, it’s only going to raise our levels more.”

The Bermuda forward has had a stop-start season, missing three matches because of Concacaf Nations League duty with Bermuda, while he was rested for Cambridge’s trip to Carlisle United last month because of a long-haul flight.

Lambe, who prefers to play as a traditional No 10, has shown his versatility, filling in at left-wing back and on the left-hand side of a midfield diamond because of injuries.

“It’s difficult to go away and come back,” Lambe added. “Looking at the results when I was away [with Bermuda], it was very disappointing to see that we didn’t really get the points from the games.

“I think it gives me that extra edge to come back and push players on in training and give us that extra edge that we might have been missing when I was away. I just want to come back and help everyone lift their game a little bit.”

The 28-year-old said he is hoping to feature regularly for Cambridge during the Christmas programme.

“I want to be involved in every game,” Lambe said. “But at the end of the day, it’s the manager’s decision, and he has to pick the team based off who is fresh and who is playing minutes.”