Shaun Derry was in charge of Notts County for 17 months until March 2015

League Two club Cambridge United have appointed former Notts County manager Shaun Derry as their new boss.

The 37-year-old had been available since his sacking by the Magpies in March, when the club were one place above the League One relegation zone.

Former Crystal Palace and QPR midfielder Derry replaces Richard Money at a side currently 18th in the fourth tier and has signed a deal until 2018.

As a player, he made a total of 652 career appearances for eight clubs.

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"I suppose a lot of my career has been following my instinct and it was absolutely right," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

"This club is starting to develop and developing rapidly. The potential here has got legs, the community is huge in Cambridge, and it's something we want to take advantage of.

"There are certain football clubs at this level that have got that ability to go higher and this is one of them."

Derry's only previous managerial experience came at Notts County, the club he supported as a boy and at which he made his professional debut.

He helped them escape relegation from League One in 2013-14, but he was dismissed after a run of just three wins in 24 league matches.

Derry's appointment follows the departure of 60-year-old Money, who had led Cambridge out of non-league in 2014 and to the fourth round of the FA Cup last season, where they took Manchester United to a replay.

"I'd like to go on record by saying I felt Richard has done a fantastic job for this football club, there's some good players left behind for me," said Derry.

"Is it a gamble? Some would say so. Do I feel I'm taking a gamble? No, not really, I'm really confident going forward. I want fans to look at the job I'd done, especially in the early part, of Notts County.

"I think it would be wrong of me to explain the depths of the details of why things went from one extreme to the other at Notts County. I know what I can do as a manager and what the staff can do as a group of people."

Analysis: BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's Peter Swan

"Shaun Derry represents a change in philosophy for the U's. They've exchanged the experience of Richard Money for youth and potential.

"Inevitably some fans will see Derry's appointment as a gamble, but he appears to have accrued plenty of goodwill during his relatively brief spell with Notts County.

"Money was given the boot because the U's board no longer believed he could deliver a top-seven finish come May. For Derry, therefore, the task seems clear."