Mark Bonner hails ‘a brilliant night’ for Cambridge as they stun Millwall

Posted Wednesday, August 03, 2022 by PA

Mark Bonner lauded his Cambridge side after they beat 10-man Millwall 1-0 in the Carabao Cup.

Liam O’Neil scored the winner just before the hour for the Sky Bet League One side, and Bonner said: “It’s a brilliant night for us.

“Without doubt it’s the most physical game we’ve had.

“Many of the games we’ve played so far in pre-season have been quite football games, possession-based games, whereas tonight was a lot more of a physical, direct game for both sides, so that was a real challenge for us.

“We’re delighted with the outcome and I’m also really proud of the lads’ performance because of how hard it has been for them and how short on match minutes they are at the minute.

“Liam took his goal really well off a period of really good play. He’s on the edge of the box and hits it well, so I was really pleased with that finish from him.”

Millwall boss Gary Rowett felt his side didn’t perform well enough as they crashed out of the competition.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “I hand it to Cambridge, they worked incredibly hard and I can’t argue that they didn’t deserve the 1-0 win.

“On nights like this you’ve got to show a little bit of Championship athleticism or Championship quality. We didn’t really show either of those attributes really.

“To lose Tom Bradshaw early in the game was a bit of a blow for us, but then we’ve got to settle down and we’ve got to try and play.

“We just forced too many passes long. We had to move the ball side to side and make them work and we didn’t really do that.

“We didn’t show enough quality on the evening, and if you don’t do that at places like this, you’re not going to go and win the game.”