Cambridge boss Calderwood praises side after hard-earned point

Posted Sunday, August 11, 2019 by PA

Cambridge head coach Colin Calderwood hailed his side’s resolute performance in difficult conditions as they earned a point against Newport.

The match at the Abbey Stadium ended 0-0, the U’s second scoreless draw in a row and also the second time Newport have earned a point. The visitors came closest to winning the game when Dimi Mitov saved well from Robbie Willmott three minutes from time.

Reflecting on his side’s performance, Cambridge boss Calderwood said: “We were resolute in the first half in really horrible conditions.

“In the second half there were moments where we have to judge ourselves on bringing more danger to teams.

“We’ll be hard on ourselves because we played one or two longer ones where there was no need. We need to play within the conditions if we can.

“There were opportunities to pass where we were a little bit slack. It’s easy when you’re sat on the sideline.

“I said to them afterwards I’ve probably forgotten what it’s like to be on the pitch in those conditions and the difficulty they’ve had to deal with. They get credit for that and we’re grateful for the point.

“Is it the conditions that stopped us creating more chances? Hopefully it is.

“In the end the special moment was Dimi’s save, terrific save. I’ve got to give both teams credit for attempting in savage conditions to produce something.

“A clean sheet, another point; we’ve got to take quite a bit from that and we stood up to the challenge for the majority of the game.”

Asked for his reaction to successive draws, Newport boss Michael Flynn said: “I’m not too concerned.

“We played very well last Saturday and should have won and today we had the better chances in difficult conditions.

“You can see the boys were misjudging where the ball was landing, putting too much on a pass, not putting enough on a pass, so it did affect them.

“But we had the better chances and I think we should have had a penalty for a foul on Jamille (Matt) but I’m a little bit further away than the referee so I’m going to trust his judgement.

“We’re unbeaten at the minute, we’ve got two solid draws on the board so without being an exciting start to the season it’s a solid start to the season.

“We’ll play better and we might lose, but on a different day we win that game one or two-nil.”

Asked about the absence of Mark O’Brien, Flynn revealed it was because there was an admin error by the club.

He said: “The wrong forms were lodged so last week’s suspension didn’t count and now he had to miss this one.

“I picked my team yesterday and he was starting.”