Mark Bonner admits Cambridge need to improve after losing run continues

Posted Sunday, October 23, 2022 by PA

Mark Bonner admitted that his Cambridge side need to make big improvements as their poor form continued.

Paul Digby’s own goal 11 minutes from time handed the U’s a 1-0 defeat against Port Vale.

Bonner’s side have now lost five straight games in League One. Having started the campaign with four straight home wins in the division, the U’s have since lost their next four in front of their own fans and not scored a goal at the Abbey Stadium in that time.

“We haven’t found a way of taking points from games at the minute when they run away from us. We’re losing too many games,” Bonner reflected after the defeat.

“The level hasn’t been good enough in too many of them. We need to sharpen up and do better because it isn’t good enough.

“At both ends of the game we’ve either got to be a really aggressive, hard-working, robust team that finds a way of getting some scruffy points, as well as being a creative team that can win games. But we’ve lost our way in that sense at the moment.

“That should be just a rubbish 0-0. As much as we wouldn’t be happy with the performance level, you have to stop a rot of results somehow and somewhere. We didn’t find that again today.

“A lot of the statistics prove that we shouldn’t be doing as badly as we are, but it’s an absolute horror show with some of the goals we’ve been conceding recently. We get deflated quite quickly if that happens so we’ve got to do that better.

“We need a little bit more from everyone at the minute.”

Darrell Clarke praised a “really good, battling performance” from his Port Vale team.

“It’s a really tough place to play. Cambridge did excellently last year, they’re having a little bit of an iffy run at the minute but they’re an established team from last season.

“To get a clean sheet and win it 1-0 I’m delighted with.

“We want to get after every team. We want to defend right but we want to play with the ball and create opportunities and we certainly did, especially in the first half.

“We defended very well as a team to limit them, I don’t think they had a shot on target, so that’s pleasing. The lads were putting bodies on the line and defending really well.

“There were probably a few eyebrows raised with the team with one or two injury problems we’ve had in the camp, but we got through it and we’re delighted that the boys that apply themselves day in, day out on training ground get their rewards with a good performance.”