Mark Bonner delighted with Cambridge’s victory over Exeter

Posted Sunday, August 14, 2022 by PA

Mark Bonner was delighted with Cambridge’s 2-1 victory over Exeter after Paul Digby hit the decisive goal in the 88th minute.

Jevani Brown gave Exeter the lead shortly before half-time, only for Sam Smith to equalise on the hour for the hosts.

“To win all three of our opening home games is important and it’s also important that we’ve come from a losing position to win today. All in all, it’s an excellent result for us,” said Cambridge boss Bonner.

Bonner also praised Digby’s winning goal, only the captain’s third for the club on his 100th appearance for Cambridge.

“The goal was well worked,” added Bonner. “They both were. In the first half we were really too slow with the ball.

“We didn’t get forward enough and we were wasteful with the ball. They ran harder and played with greater intensity than us.

“We flipped it in the second half. We ran harder, dominated longer spells and got the ball into wide areas.

“The first goal is a cross from the left hand side from (James) Brophy that they don’t clear. It ends up with George (Williams) who crosses it and Sam (Smith) scores with a great header.

“Then Jack (Lankester) was excellent to pick out the header from a late run so the game ended with all the drama you would expect.”

Exeter boss Matt Taylor said the defeat was hard to take.

“I thought we did OK in the first half,” he said. “We got away with a couple of poor moments, but we weren’t as fluid as we normally have been and our use of the ball today was pretty poor throughout.

“We still had moments in the game even before we scored. There was a pull-back on Jevani (Brown) when he was clean through. That’s a big moment for the referee. It’s an easy one to not give, but you’ve got to give the right decision and that looks like a foul on the video.

“We were disappointed at that moment because that might have been ten men on a hot day for the opposition. We scored a good goal, with outstanding work and commitment at the top of the pitch from Sam Nombe to provide Jevani with that goal.”